
Copyright}]^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA 



IN TWO PARTS 



PART I 

History of Education 
IN Minnesota 

BY 

DAVID L. KIEHLE, LL. D. 

EX-STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 

LATE PROFESSOR OF PEDAGOGY IN THE 

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 




MINNEAPOLIS , 

THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 
1903 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JUL 20 1903 

Copynglnt Entry 

CUSS^ ^ XXfcN», 

COPY B. 



V 






Copyright by 

The H. W. Wilson Company 

1903 



PREFACE. 

We study the history of institutions in order 
the better to understand our own. We begin by 
studying- our own, after which we study those 
that will help us interpret the one under which 
we live. In education -if^will be found a very 
interesting as well as profitable study to notice 
how old forms and ideas have been incorporated 
in the systems of the present, and how new ideas 
are struggling for recognition and a place. Our 
state is near enough to the past to feel the power 
of a system of aristocratic education, and at the 
same time to be fully possessed with democratic 
ideas of a practical education for all the people. 

Upon the invitation of the State Historical 
Society I had the honor to prepare and present 
before that society at its annual meeting a His- 
tory of Education in Minnesota. Upon the basis 
of this address I have prepared this volume with 
special reference to our educational public. Its 
plan is to indicate the development of the per- 
manent factors of our school system, and to 
show' the place of our system in those of the 
present day. 

If this contribution shall prove to be in some 



4 PREFACE 

measure helpful to a better understanding of 
what we are, and toward what we aspire in a 
genuine education for all the people, and so 
make us wiser educators and better citizens, I 
shall not count my task unfruitful. 

D. L. K. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER 

I. Territorial Organization 7 

II. Common Schools under the State Government 17 

Administration of the School Fund ... 17 

State Aid to Education 20 

State Special Aid 23 

Libraries 24 

Supervision 24, 30 

The Improvement of Teachers .... 31 

Normal Schools 32 

III. Higher Education 40 

Financial History of the University . . 44 

John S. Pillsbury as Regent 52 

The Beginnings of University Life ... 54 

Administration of President Folwell . . 55 

Administration of President Northrop . . 59 

Support of the University 60 

Buildings 61 

Industrial Education 62 

The Agricultural College Established . . 64 

Agricultural Education 68 

The New Experimental Farm .... 72 

The School of Agriculture 75 

Professional Departments 82 

The Department of Pedagogy .... 82 

IV. Secondary Education gi 

State High Schools 94 

V. Schools for Defectives and Homeless Children 102 

b1bl10c7raphv 113 

Tables 115 



HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
IX MINNESOTA 

CHAPTER I. 

Territorial Period. 

The planting and fostering of a system of ed- 
ucation in a new state is the most far-reaching 
event in its history. The pioneers who did this 
service stand as the representatives of the world's 
civilization at its high water mark. These men 
and women of that early day brought with them 
the courage and endurance necessary to face the 
hardships and dangers of unsubdued nature in 
climate, land and flood and still held by unsubdued 
savage life. They opened up highways of travel, 
built towns and factories, and more than all, they 
brought in their own characters and ideals the 
best of modern life in homes, churches and 
schools. They sought not merely lands and 
wealth for themselves, but they laid the founda- 
tions of a system of education in which their 
children should inherit the learning and culture 
of the world's historv, and so make themselves 



8 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

a part of the continuous history of a Christian 
civiHzation. Standing as we now do in the en- 
joyment of the fruitage of this great system in its 
full vigor and maturity, abreast of the age, and 
respected by our sister states for what we have 
done, and still promise for the future, we review 
with pride the record of our fathers. 

Of those most prominent in this early public 
service there remains with us only our venerable 
fellow citizen, Ex-Governor Ramsey/ still the 
honored president of our State Historical So- 
ciety, who, in his public and private capacity 
has rendered invaluable aid by his wise counsel 
in the erection of this noble structure, and of 
which he might with modesty say with the tra- 
ditional founder of the old Roman state, "Quor- 
um magna pars fui." We congratulate our re- 
spected fellow citizen that it is his privilege to 
witness the magnificence and the beneficence of 
this superstructure of education, the cornerstone 
of which he helped to lay in those troublous 
times. 

The honor due these builders of our state is 
enhanced in the fact, that, besides subduing the 
wilderness and savagery of this new world, they 
had to establish the institutions of a Christian 
civilization in opposition to the corrupting vices 
^Deceased since this chapter was written. 



IN MINNESOTA 9 

of greed and animalism that always attach them- 
selves to a vigorous and exuberant life of enter- 
prise and prosperity. While the dregs of civili- 
zation fostered houses of debauchery, drunken- 
ness and licentiousness, these men planted school- 
houses, churches and homes of love and virtue. 
May their memories ever be cherished, and their 
examples of courage and virtue be an inspiration 
to the youth for whose education they have made 
provision. 

The Beginning. 
The spirit of our modern civilization was act- 
ive in education before the state as an institution 
had organic form, and long before the elements 
were at hand for the organization of a state sys- 
tem. When Minnesota first became known as a 
territory in 1849, there were but three centers 
of civil and social life so far developed as to fur- 
nish starting points for schools, namely, Still- 
water, St. Paul and St. Anthony. At these points 
were elementar}^ private schools — Miss Horn- 
beck (Mrs. H. L. Morse) at Stillwater, Miss 
Backus at St. Anthony, and at St. Paul, Miss 
Bishop and Miss Scofield. Two years before. 
Dr. Thomas S. Williamson, a pioneer missionary 
to the Indians, in the catholicity of his spirit took 
in the higher interests of the white people of St. 
Paul, wrote to Ex-Governor Slade of Vermont, 



10 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

President of the National Popular Education 
Society, representing that in this village there 
were some thirty-six children of school age, and 
requested that a teacher be sent them. In re- 
sponse to this appeal Miss Bishop came. She 
has described her schoolhouse as a log hovel 
some 10 by 12 ft., covered with bark and chinked 
with mud, and previously used as a blacksmith 
shop. On the sides, pegs were driven into the 
logs, and upon them boards v/ere laid for seats. 
This little log schoolhouse was located on St. 
Anthony street — the old site of the First Presby- 
terian Church. It is also memorable in being 
the place where the first public school meeting 
was held in November, 1849, immediately after 
the organization of the territory. 

Christian Schools. 

Inasmuch as the earliest educational influences 
were represented in the missionary spirit of in- 
dividuals and Christian denominations, this seems 
to be the place to recognize the continued enter- 
prise of these high-minded men and women 
down to the present day. Their work has not 
been superseded by the more comprehensive plan 
of the state that followed. With the specific aims 
of providing an educated laity and ministry, they 
also established schools of hia-her learniner for 



IN MINNESOTA ii 

all who would avail themselves of these advan- 
tages. 

In 1853 the Baldwin school in St. Paul, open 
to both sexes, was incorporated, and in the fol- 
lowing year Baldwin College was opened to 
young men. The sparsely settled condition of 
the country, the unorganized condition of soci- 
ety, accompanied by the financial stress of 1857, 
and followed by the civil war of 1861-65, arrest- 
ed all educational enterprises, so that we must 
look for their continued history in the years fol- 
lowing. In 1874 through a bequest of Charles 
Macalester of Philadelphia the name of Baldwin 
College was changed to Macalester College, and 
it was permanently located with buildings for in- 
struction and residences for professors on its pres- 
ent campus of thirty acres in St. Paul, under the 
presidency of Rev. James Wallace, Ph.D. It is 
deserving of record that the founding of this 
college is chiefly due to the laborious efforts of 
Rev. Edward D. Neill, D.D., the pioneer mis- 
sionary and educator who came to this state in 
1849. ^6 ^^'^'S not only the servant of his own 
denomination, but as a public spirited citizen and 
cultivated scholar, he was identified with the civil 
life of the state, and was one of the influential 
leaders in developing its educational system, as 
we shall have occasion to notice further on. 



12 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The Methodist denomination moved early in 
estabhshing Hamline University in 1854, form- 
ally opened to men and women in 1857. It 
was located at Red Wing, which "in 1849 l^^d a 
population of 305, — 300 being Sionx Indians, 
and the five being two missionaries with the 
wife and child of one, and the government farm- 
er." "In all, between the years 1857 and 1869, 
the university graduated 14 women and 9 men." 

Hamline University, after a struggling career 
of many years, owing to conditions already not- 
ed, dates its new and prosperous history after its 
removal to its present location between the Twin 
Cities in 1869, and its re-opening in 1880 as a 
collegiate institution under the presidency of 
Rev. D. C. John, D.D. (1880-1883), and Rev. 
George H. Bridgman, D.D., its present adminis- 
trative ofificer and president. 

The ending of the Civil War and the estab- 
lished union of the divided states marks the be- 
ginning of the larger industrial and educational 
prosperity of the state. Every religious denom- 
ination has been active in contributing its in- 
fluence to the upbuilding of the state in intelli- 
gence and morality. The Bishop Seabury Mis- 
sion, chartered in i860, includes the system of 
academic and divinity schools located at Fari- 
bault. These stand as a monument to the enter- 



IN MINNESOTA 15 

prise and philanthropy of the Episcopal Church. 

At Northfield, in 1867, was opened the pre- 
paratory department of what in 1870 took per- 
manent form in the opening of Carleton College 
under the presidency of Rev. James W. Strong, 
D.D., who has just closed his long and success- 
ful administration. 

In 1864 St. John's College was established 
by the Order of St. Benedict and located 
at Collegeville. Following the sixties the re- 
ligious and educational spirit of the state, 
Protestant and Catholic, multiplied schools and 
academies in all parts of the state, and sq 
making the best possible provision for the ele- 
mentary and higher- instruction of our youth in 
the absence of the more comprehensive system 
which the state has since provided. 

Appended, will be found a list of the second- 
ary and higher institutions now established and 
supported by private benefactions and religious 
associations of loyal citizens of the state, who in 
addition bear their full share in support of our 
public school system. 

The noticeable characteristic of our own, as 
of all educational history, is in this, that provis- 
ion is first made for the higher education and 
leadership of those who control and give direc- 
tion to the institutional life. If society has an 



14 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

intelligent, virtuous and philanthropic leadership 
in a few good men and women the masses will 
follow and obey in confidence. Then again, these 
movements find support among a class who are 
impressed by the greatness of an institution, and 
who are pleased to be identified with an institu- 
tion that receives public honor. These will often 
help to build capitols and monuments before 
they build homes for their own children. For all 
these reasons the university movement m terri- 
torial days was a more engrossing subject than 
the public schools. However, all elements of the 
system were in view from the first, as we shall 
see. 

The history of education in Minnesota belongs 
to a second great chapter of our nation's his- 
tory, which dates from the Ordinance of 1787, 
when the old states of New England, New York, 
and Virginia ceded their claims to territory in 
the northwest to the General Government, and 
when this new empire of the great west began its 
history, estabHshed on the "trinity of principles, 
free labor, free religion, and free education." At 
that time the Government set apart one-thirtv- 
sixth of the public domain — section sixteen of 
each township — for the support of common 
schools. In 1848, upon the organization of the 
Territory of Oregon, the national grant to com- 



IN MINNESOTA 15 

mon schools was increased to two sections in 
each township-section, — number thirty-six being 
added. 

The first Assembly of the Territory of Minne- 
sota convened September 3, 1849. Its Governor, 
the Honorable Alexander Ramsey, in his mes- 
sage presented the interests of education in these 
words. "The subject of education, which has 
ever been esteemed of the first importance, es- 
pecially in all new American communities, de- 
serves, and I doubt not will receive, your ear- 
liest and most devoted care. From the pressure 
of other and more immediate wants, it is not to 



Alexander Ramsey was born near Harrisburg, Penn- 
sylvania, September 8, 1815. His parentage was Scotch- 
Irish on his father's side and German on tliat of his 
mother. At eighteen he attended Lafayette College, 
then read law in Harrisburg, attended law school at Car- 
lisle and was admitted to practice in 1839. His political 
life began in 1840 with the Harrison campaign; he was a 
member of the lower house of Congress from 1843 to 
1847, and the year following was made chairman of the 
whig state central committee in the campaign which re- 
sulted in the election of General Zachary Taylor to the 
presidency. Upon his inauguration, President Taylor 
appointed Mr. Ramsey Governor of the Territory of 
Minnesota, April 2, 1849, and he served four years. In 
1859 he was elected the second Govenor of the state, 
serving two terms. In 1863 Governor Ramsey was 
chosen United States Senator, and was re-elected in 
i86g, serving twelve years. Governor Ramsey lived to 
see the development of the state in all its interests with 
which he had been long and closely identified. He died 
at his home in St. Paul April 22, 1903. 



i6 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

be expected that your school system should be 
very ample; yet it is desirable that whatever is 
done should be of a character that will readily 
adapt itself to the growth and increase of the 
country, and not in future years require a vio- 
lent change of system." 

The territorial school code made provision for, 
(i) The appointment of a Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, — Edward D. Neill being the 
first, and at the same salary as the Treasurer and 
Auditor — $ioo per annum. (2) The division of 
the township into districts, whenever the district 
contains ten or more families. (3) The levy of 
a county tax of two and a half mills for the sup- 
port of schools, to which was added fifteen per 
cent of all liquor licenses and fines for criminal 
offense. 

The first report of Superintendent Neill for 
the year 185 1 gives eight districts in Ramsey 
County with three school houses valued at $1600, 
and four districts in Washington County, but 
with no school houses. 




ALEXANDER RAMSEY 



CHAPTER 11. 

Common Schools Under the State 
Government. 

For the permanent organization of our com- 
mon school system we must pass on to the organ- 
ization of the state government and the adoption 
of the Constitution. 

The record of the proceedings of the Con- 
vention which began its sessions July 13, 1857, 
gives us a view of the interesting problems thai 
were then considered and adjusted regarding 
the administration of our school fund. 

The Administration oe School Funds. 

Prominent was the question whether, inas- 
much as the public lands were designated as the 
sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of each town- 
ship, the revenue accruing should not be admin- 
istered by township authorities for the support 
of the schools of the township in which the lands 
were located. In favor of this policy, two reas- 
ons were urged ; First, that instead of appropri- 
ating the lands in bulk as they were for the uni- 
versity, they had been distributed in townships, 
which would seem to indicate that thev were for 



i8 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the respective townships in which they were lo- 
cated. Second, that to put all these lands under 
the control of an administration located at St. 
Paul savored too much of centralization, by re- 
moving them too far from the people. This view 
was supported by the recent experience of our 
nearest neighbor, Wisconsin, where, through the 
mismanagement and defaulting of state ofificers, 
the lands were sold at nominal prices to spec- 
ulators, and the interests of the state largely 
sacrificed. 

On the other hand it was held ; First, that al- 
though these lands were located by sections of 
townships, it is expressly stated in the act author- 
izing a state government, that these lands "shall 
be granted to said state, for the use of schools." 
(Sec. 5) Second; that there was great dispar- 
ity in the value of these lands, and that conse- 
quently great hardship would be entailed upon 
some, while other townships would be made 
quite self-supporting, and for reasons such as 
these : Some lands were more valuable than 
others, because of their fertility or their location 
near commercial centers. In some townships 
the school sections were valueless, being located 
in swamps or lying under water, while in other 
townships these sections had already been pre- 
empted, and, therefore, were not available for 



IN MINNESOTA 19 

school purposes. The wise conclusion of the 
convention is incorporated in Article VIII, Sec. 
2, of the State Constitution, in which the public 
school lands are to be administered by the state 
for the scholars of the state, to be sold at public 
sale and not more than one-third in two years, 
one-third in five years, and one-third in ten 
years, the most valuable lands to be sold first ; 
and that the principal shall constitute an inviolate 
permanent fund, the income from which shall be 
distributed according to the number of scholars 
between the ages of five and twenty-one years. 

This conservative spirit of the convention was 
expressed in subsequent legislation (1866), pro- 
hibiting the sale of school lands for less than five 
dollars an acre; and in 1875 by amendment to 
the constitution providing for the safe investment 
of school funds in bonds of the State of Minne- 
sota and of the United States. In 1896 an ad- 
ditional amendment provided for the investment 
of school funds in bonds of counties, school dis- 
tricts, cities, towns and villages of the state to a 
very limited amount under the direction and 
with the approval of a designated board of com- 
missioners. 

The history of the common school fund of 
Minnesota bears a most honorable testimony to 
the business sagacity and the conscientious faith- 



20 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

fulness of the officers of the state who have been 
charged with its administration. The table ap- 
pended shows the increase of this fund by five- 
year intervals to the present, when it amounts 
to $14,316,389. 

State Aid to Education. 

A vital principle in public education was in- 
volved in this act of the constitutional conven- 
tion, which extended far beyond the mere meth- 
od of administrating public funds, namely this : 
Shall the children be treated as wards of the 
township and county, or shall they be recognized 
as the wards of the state? And, shall responsi- 
bility for their education be left with the town- 
ship, or with the state? 

In deciding that national grants were given to 
the state for the children of the state, the con- 
vention impliedly affirmed that the state must 
assume its share of responsibility, not only in 
requiring townships to support their schools^ but 
also in contributing to the support of the schools 
over which they have control. 

This principle was long in receiving substan- 
tial recognition in state financial support of the 
common schools. The county two and a half 
mill tax, which had been levied and apportioned 
by counties "in proportion to persons between 



IN MINNESOTA 21 

4 and 21 years of age" had been changed in 1877 
to what was substantially a compulsory district 
one mill tax ; and yet by some this was called 
a state mill tax. 

In his report to the legislature of 1879 State 
Superintendent Burt exposed the fallacy of this 
view, and urged with great force the reasonable- 
ness and importance of state support for com- 
mon schools. But it was not till 1887 that upon 
the re-presentation of the pressing importance 
of this matter by State Superintendent Kiehle, 
the principle was recognized, and a state one mill 
tax was levied for the support of common 
schools. 

A second principle established by the consti- 
tutional convention was involved in the question 
whether the distribution to townships should be 
made according to school population or to schol- 
ars. It was decided for the latter, that "the in- 
come arising from the lease or sale of said school 
lands shall be distributed to the different town- 
ships throughout the state in proportion to the 
number of scholars between the ages of five and 
twenty-one years." This involved the next ques- 
tion, Who are "scholars?" And this was finally 
decided by the legislature of 1887, that in view 
of the fact that the word "persons" was rejected 
by the framers of the constitution, and the word 



22 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

"scholars" inserted, the word must be taken in 
its literal, restrictive sense, and not as synony- 
mous with either "persons," "children," or 
"youth." In other words, "scholars" are those 
who attend school, and consequently, the dis- 
tribution of public school moneys shall be for 
their benefit and for no others. This decision 
took form in the present statute of 1887, which 
distributes the national and state school appor- 
tionment "in proportion to the number of schol- 
ars between the ages of five and twenty-one 
years who have been enrolled and have been in 
attendance forty days in the public schools." It 
was also provided in this same statute (1887) 
that the schools should be held for not less than 
five months each year. 

Considering that the early settlers of the state 
were of various sorts and conditions, from many 
different states of the Union, and diflferent coun- 
tries of Europe, generally in straitened circum- 
stances and struggling for a livelihood, we can- 
not wonder that it was quite impossible for the 
few public spirited to dispose the rural popula- 
tion to great sacrifice for the education of their 
children. Hence the support and encouragement 
given by the General Government was a neces- 
sity in the early organization of our school 
svstem. 



IN MINNESOTA 23 

State Aid for Special Rural and Semi- 
Graded Schools. 

As we have noted the beginning- of state aid 
to common schools, it seems best to complete 
the history of this movement of state aid down 
to the present, and show how large a place it has 
had in promoting education in the rural dis- 
tricts. 

The next step in progress was to offer special 
aid to districts affording additional advantages 
for the education of their children in long terms, 
better prepared teachers and better equipped 
school buildings. These schools, according ^o 
their advancement, were classified as rural, semi- 
graded, graded schools and state high schools. 
These schools are placed under special supervis- 
ion, and are afforded aid ranging from one 
hundred twenty-five to fifteen hundred dollars 
each. (For fuller details see Part II.) 

This generous aid of the state has proven a 
marvelous stimulus to education. The amounts 
given have encouraged districts to make corres- 
ponding expenditures in schoolhouses and equip- 
ment, and instead of making the people depend- 
ent upon the state they have grown ambitious to 
do more for themselves. 



24 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

And still more has the state done for the im- 
provement of the common schools. 

Libraries. 

In the year 1885 the legislature passed the 
library law, which provided that districts which 
make suitable provision for the care of their 
libraries, and make purchases of books from the 
authorized list shall receive one-half the amount 
expended up to ten dollars for the first statement, 
and five dollars for each subsequent statement — 
these statements being made annually. In 1895 
this allowance was doubled. 

By the aid of this appropriation rural and vil- 
lage schools, many of which had no books but 
their ordinary text books, have been supplied 
with the world's choicest literature, in books 
of biography, travel, geography and history, 
which make school life and studv one of delight 
and intellectual growth. 

State Supervision of Education. 

Competent supervision is essential to the de- 
velopment of any system of education, and equal- 
ly essential to its efficient conduct. The superin- 
tendent represents in his character and ideals the 
maturest results of experience as they find ex- 
pression in the best public sentiment of the times. 



IN MINNESOTA 25 

The State of Minnesota was led in the build- 
ing up of its educational system by a man who 
brought with him the classical culture of the 
east, and a broad view of the moral and 
intellectual demands of an American civilization. 
Edward D. Neill was the first territorial superin- 
tendent, the first chancellor of the University of 
Minnesota, and the first State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, in which he served from 
April I, i860 to May i, 1861. In his first re- 
port (i860) he makes the following recommend- 
ations : 

1. Provision should be made for county sup- 
erintendents of schools. The township plan of 
supervision had proven utterly inadequate. 

2. The civil township should be made the 
unit of district organization. 

It is noticeable that having adhered to the 
neighborhood plan of small districts, we are now 
trying to remedy the evils of small districts, by 
some plan of combining districts and transport- 
ing pupils. 

3. The school fund should be distributed ac- 
cording to scholars in attendance and not ac- 
cording to a census of persons of school age. 

This recommendation was adopted some twen- 
ty-five years later. 



26 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

4. A uniform series of text books should be 
provided for the state. 

5. Districts should be aided in obtaining 
school libraries at wholesale rates. 

Following Dr. Neill, B. F. Crary was appoint- 
ed, and served from May i, 1861, to Jan. i, 1862. 
At that session the legislature abolished the of- 
fice, and assigned its duties to the Secretary of 
State. Under this law David Blakely and H. C. 
Rogers served until April i, 1867, at which time 
the ofifice was re-established and Mark H. Dun- 
nell was appointed, and served under his re -ap- 
pointment till his resignation, Aug. i, 1870. 

Mr. Dunnell immediately undertook the more 
complete organization of schools by a revision of 
school registers and the preparation of a com- 
plete set of blanks for the use of teachers and 
school officers. He appointed and held meetings 
with school superintendents, which greatly in- 
creased popular interest in education. He or- 
ganized teachers' institutes for the rural school 
teachers, and by his personal attention to them 
and his popular addresses made them powerful 
for good. 

The resignation of Mr. Dunnell was followed 
by the appointment of Horace B. Wilson who 
served till the expiration of his third term, April 
1875. Mr. Wilson brought to the office the scliol- 



IN MINNESOTA 27 

arship of a professor of mathematics and the 
practical experience of a county superintendent 
of schools. His service to the state was felt in 
the enlarged powers and increased duties of his 
office conferred by the legislature upon his re- 
commendation. Mr. Wilson made five reports 
which are of permanent value for the able discus- 
sions they contain of the leading topics of school 
administration. 

David Burt succeeded to the office April 5, 
1875, and continued until his resignation Sept. 
I, 1 88 1, a few weeks before his decease, which 
occurred Sept. 24, 1881. 

Air. Burt came to the office from the county 
superintendency, and for over five years dili- 
gently fostered every department of the educa- 
tional system. He was a man of penetrating and 
clear intelligence, able to compass the whole sys- 
tem in its purpose and plan, and equally able to 
appreciate all details in applications of principles. 
He urged and secured the enactment of the law 
appropriating school funds according to the 
number of scholars attending school. He made 
a vigorous but unsuccessful opposition to what 
has been known as the state text book law, which 
provided for the selection of a series of books 
and a fifteen year contract for their supply to the 
schools of the state. The reports of Superin- 



28 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

tendent Burt contain much valuable material, 
the result of careful research and arrangement. 
Succeeding Superintendent Burt came David 
L. Kiehle, the principal of the state Normal 
School at St. Cloud and previously county super- 
intendent of schools. He served in seven suc- 
cessive terms from Sept. i, 1881, to Sept, i, 
1893. It was his fortune to assume the duties 
of the office just as the state was maturing into 
social and financial power, and prepared to con- 
tinue the organization so well established in pre- 
vious administrations. Taking the work as it 
came to him, the following are the more import- 
ant measures adopted as parts of the school 
system during his administration : 

1. The more complete organization of insti- 
tute instruction by which, with an increase of the 
state appropriation from $3,000 to $7,000, and a 
special conductor provided by each of the normal 
schools, each county of the State has been pro- 
vided with an institute annually. 

2. A State tax of one mill has been estab- 
lished, which increases the school fund annually 
appropriated to about $1,000,000. 

3. A public school library fund was estab- 
lished which provides (i) for the selection of a 
choice list of books by special commission con- 
sisting of the State Superintendent of Public In- 



IN MINNESOTA 29 

struction and the presidents of the four State 
normal schools; (2) a payment by the State, up 
to $20, of one-half of the first order for books 
selected by a district, up to $10 of one-half of the 
second order, and up to $5 of one-half of any 
subsequent order, and (3) an annual appropria- 
tion of $10,000 to meet the requirements of the 
law. 

4. A system of summer training schools of 
four weeks each with a present annual appro- 
priation of $20,000. 

5. The reorganization of the State high 
school system and the appointment of a high 
school inspector as explained elsewhere, by which 
free secondary tuition is now provided in 141 
State high schools, preparatory to the university 
and the professional schools. 

6. As regent of the university he formulated 
the plan for the School of Agriculture, which 
has developed to its present proportions on lines 
then laid out. 

Upon the resignation of Superintendent 
Kiehle, William W. Pendergast, former assist- 
ant Superintendent of Public Instruction, and 
at this time principal of the School of Agricul- 
ture, was appointed and continued in service 
till January i, 1899. Superintendent Pender- 
gast brought to the office the mature experience 



30 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of a teacher, a county superintendent and an of- 
ficer of the department, and discharged the du- 
ties of the office with efficiency and wisdom. 

From January i, 1899 to January i, 1901, 
John H. Lewis was appointed and discharged the 
duties of the office. A teacher and city superin- 
tendent of schools of long experience, Superin- 
tendent Lewis administered the of^ce with 
marked energy and success. Upon his recom- 
mendation the present system of state examin- 
ation of teachers was established by statute, and 
put into successful operation, and the entire sys- 
tem given a new impulse. 

Upon the completion of Superintendent Lew- 
is's term, John W. Olsen was appointed and has 
now entered upon his second term of service. 
His record as a successful county superintendent 
of schools has commended him to the confidence 
of the public, and is the guarantee of a faithful 
administration. 

County Supervision-, 

By the statute of 1851 the trustees were re- 
quired to examine and license teachers before 
employing them to teach in the schools. 

By the statute of 1862 the county commission- 
ers were required to appoint one man in each 
commissioner district to visit the schools, and 



IN MINNESOTA 31 

to examine and license teachers. The same law 
I)rovided that in their discretion they might ap- 
point one man for the whole county to discharge 
these duties. 

In 1877 the law was amended, making the of- 
fice elective, and that for all counties. It also 
fixed the minimum salary at ten dollars for each 
district superintended. The law has from time 
to time been amended to provide for assistance, 
printing and office expenses. 

The history of this office has been one of un- 
rest and dissatisfaction on the part of the super- 
intendents, because of the heavy responsibilities 
laid upon them, and the slow progress which the 
rural schools are making in introducing the bet- 
ter conditions of school architecture, support of 
teachers, and grading of the schools. 

For the Improvement of Teachers. 

But the aid afforded by the state in the im- 
provement of the common schools is by no 
means exhausted with the payment of salaries 
and furnishing libraries. It has given generously 
for the improvement of teachers themselves. 

Beginning with the present law (1867) re- 
establishing the state superintendency of schools, 
provision was made for a system of state insti- 
tutes under the direction of Superintendent 



32 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

A'lark H. Dunnell, with an appropriation of $3,- 
000. By the aid of this fund teachers have an- 
nually been called together in the counties of the 
state and instructed in whatever seemed helpful 
in the organization and instruction of their 
schools. 

The early stage of this work was in short in- 
stitutes of a few days, and generally extended to 
a week. In 1891 the appropriation was increased 
to $12,000, in order to provide for summer 
schools for teachers in which more systematic 
academic and professional instruction should be 
given for a longer term of not less than four 
weeks. During the first season fourteen schools 
were held, with an aggregate enrollment of 12 10. 
The second season (1892) the university sum- 
mer school for both elementary and advanced 
work, and for the improvement of teachers in 
both graded and high schools was opened and 
has been continued to the present. 

In 1 90 1 the term of the school was increased 
to six weeks. The first enrollment of this school 
was 741, and has steadily increased to 1107 in 
1902. The annual appropriation for institutes and 
summer schools has been increased to $27,000. 

Normal Schools. 
But the crowning support of the state for the 



IN MINNESOTA 33 

improvement of its common schools has been in 
the recognition of teaching as a profession, and 
in recjuiring the special training of teachers. The 
normal schools were the result of this movement. 
For nearly a century, Etirope — especially Ger- 
many — had been wrestling with the problem of 
education for the people. From the humiliating 
defeat of Prussia by Napoleon and the Peace of 
Tilsit (1807), this problem of systematic edu- 
cation of the people has been the leading. In 
this country the general conception of the com- 
mon school has been that it is where the three 
R's are mastered by the perfunctory drill and 
discipline of the school master. 

The revival of common school education dates 
from the services of Horace Mann, who, as Sec- 
retary of the Board of Education of Massachus- 
etts (1837) gave his splendid talent and great 
enthusiasm to the improvement of the schools of 
the people. The period from 1830 to 1870 may 
be considered the revival period of popular ed- 
ucation. Although the common school had been 
planted, and the principle acknowledged, the real 
interest even in common schools had positively 
declined. It is one thing to recognize in reason 
a principle or doctrine, but quite a different thing 
to incorporate it into the life and habits 
of a people. It was so in the organization 



34 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of our government, and was equally true of our 
school system. This lethargy concerning public 
schools was not because of indifference to edu- 
cation, and does not signify that there were no 
good schools. On the contrary, the colleges and 
academies had increased in number and efficiency. 
In every town select schools, seminaries and 
academies were taught by young men graduated 
from the colleges. The result was that the better 
class of families were separated in their common 
associations and interests from the common 
people. 

Yet the schools and colleges of higher educa- 
tion furnished the very men of broad vision and 
democratic spirit who become the wise friends 
and champions of popular education. They 
caught the idea from Germany, and under the 
leadership of men like Rev. Charles Brooks of 
Massachusetts, Horace Mann and Edmund 
Dwight, and with the moral support of states- 
men, as Daniel Webster and John Quincy Ad- 
ams, the normal schools were established in Mas- 
sachusetts. The following views adopted in reso- 
lutions at a convention in 1838 represent the at- 
titude of these reformers in education. 

I. The deplorably low condition of the public 
schools. 



IN MINNESOTA 35 

2. The necessity of immediate and radical re- 
forms. 

3. The inauguration of normal schools after 
the Prussian type would reform and vitalize the 
whole system of education in the state. 

In 1839 the first normal school in America was 
opened at Lexington, Mass. 

During forty years this most essential adjunct 
to our common school system has been establish- 
ing itself in the confidence of the public, and in 
perfecting its methods in the preparation of 
teachers. 

To Winona belongs the honor of giving first 
expression in Minnesota tO' this new movement 
for the improvement of our schools. In 1858 
Dr. John D. Ford, through the legislative del- 
egation from Winona County secured the pas- 
sage of the bill establishing three normal schools, 
at Winona, Mankato and St. Cloud. Through 
the generous donations of its citizens the first 
normal school was opened in the city of Winona 
on the first Monday in September, i860, with 
Professor John Ogden of Columbus, Ohio, as its 
Principal. "To the credit of this normal board 
and its secretary. Dr. Ford, it may be said that 
the first state tax for school purposes was author- 
ized and levied upon their urgent recommenda- 
tion." In 1861 Professor Ogden resigned the 



36. HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

principalship for the purpose of joining the 
Union army. After another term, owing to the 
disturbed condition of the country, the school 
was suspended to be re-opened in 1864 under the 
principalship of Professor William F. Phelps, of 
New York, and recently of the State normal 
school of New Jersey. The educational center at 
which the normal idea was most efifectually focal- 
ized was the Oswego normal school. New York, 
under the presidency and direction of Dr. E. A. 
Sheldon. From there it radiated east and west, 
and was represented in Minnesota by Principal 
Phelps in the reorganization of the state normal 
school at Winona. Here, with an enthusiasm 
that made no compromise with traditional con- 
servatism, he advocated the Pestalozzian idea, 
and introduced the teachers from Oswego that 
fixed permanently the standard of normal in- 
struction in that school, and, following it, of ev- 
ery other normal school of the state. The first 
appropriation was for $3000 the first year, $4000 
for the second, and $5000 annually thereafter. 
The second school was opened in Mankato in Oc- 
tober, 1868; the third in St. Cloud in September 
1869. The fourth was opened in Moorhead in 
September, 1888, and the fifth in Duluth in Sep- 
tember, 1902. These centers of training for 
teachers have had a continuous growth, and have 



IN MINNESOTA 37 

exerted a powerful influence in the education of 
the state. For years they had to meet the op- 
position of conservatism and ignorance, just as 
they did in Massachusetts. Within a year after 
the opening- of the Lexington normal school the 
Committee of Education was directed hy the leg- 
islature "to consider the expediency of abolishing 
the board of education and the normal schools, 
and to report by bill or otherwise." That com- 
mittee reported submitting a bill abolishing the 
Board of Education and the state normal 
schools : but by the influence and labors of Hor- 
ace Mann and his associates, the bill was lost by 
a vote of 245 to 182. So in Minnesota, at every 
session of the legislature opposition arose until 
in 1876 the special appropriation was refused, and 
the schools were left to do the best they could 
on the annual appropriation of $5000. That was 
the legislature in which it was proposed, in a 
spirit of some seriousness and of greater ridicule, 
that the normal schools should be turned into in- 
ebriate asylums. From that day to the present 
these schools have received the generous sup- 
port of the state, and their instruction is thor- 
oughly established in the confidence of the public. 
The appended tables show the amount appropri- 
ated for the support of these schools in their sev- 



38 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

era] interests, and also their enrollment and grad- 
uations. 

Qualifications of Teachers. 

The organization of anv institution or system 
is only complete in providing for efficient service. 
Having furnished opportunities for a prepar- 
ation to teach, the state has improved the means 
by which the public is able to make reasonable 
discrimination in the selection of teachers for 
their schools. The plan in its present form was 
recommended by State Superintendent John H. 
Lewis antl enacted by the legislature of 1899. Its 
main features are these : 

1. All Examinations are held on the same 
days in the several counties of the state under 
the supervision of the respective county super- 
intendents, upon questions prepared by the state 
department of public instruction, and under in- 
structions fixed by that department. 

2. All papers are forwarded to the state de- 
partment, and are passed upon by a corps of ex- 
aminers. 

3. Certificates are graded as follows : First 
grade, good for five years, and Second grade, 
good for two years. These are issued onlv to 
persons who have satisfactory- academic and pro- 
fessional preparation. Certificates of the first 



IN MINNESOTA 39 

grade are valid in any county of the state ; and 
those of the second grade are valid in the county 
in which the examination is held, and in any 
other county upon the endorsement of its covmty 
superintendent. The law also provides for local 
Third grade certificates, good for single year 
in a given district. The statute of 1885 provides 
that the diplomas of the State normal schools shall 
be valid as certificates of the first grade for two 
years, and that upon satisfactory evidence of 
success in teaching as evidenced by the endorse- 
ment of the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
and the president of the normal school issuing 
the diploma, that of the Elementary course shall 
be valid as a state certificate for five years, and 
that of the Advanced course shall be a perman- 
ent certificate of qualification. This survey of 
our common school system, including the ap- 
pended tables, completes the financial and educa- 
tional history of this first part of the entire 
system. 



CHAPTER III. 

Higher Education. 

We now come to the history of secondary and 
higher education as embodied in our state uni- 
versity and high schools. Inasmuch as a his- 
tory of education is far more than a record of 
material resources in lands, money and buildings, 
that we may take a just measure of our educa- 
tional progress, we must take a general survey 
of the past that will help to interpret the present. 
We are a part of the world's history and pro- 
gress, and our own must be measured by the de- 
gree in which we incorporate the best of the past 
in our institutional life, keeping abreast of the 
times in the forward movement toward the ideals 
of the future. For our purpose, this history in- 
volves tv/o phases. The first is, education for the 
people — the masses to wdiom the matter of sus- 
tenance is the all-absorbing one. The second is the 
education of the higher classes, representing 
blood, wealth and political position. To these, 
sustenance has been assured in their inheritances, 
and education has been for the utilization and en- 
joyment of life in various degrees from merest 



.EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA 41 

animalism up to the highest activities of intel- 
lectual and moral natures. Schools — a word 
from the Latin schola, meaning leisure — were 
anciently for those who were free to give time to 
stud}-. A liberal education was for freemen — 
liberal being kindred to liberty — and not for peas- 
ants, laborers and slaves. These from the days 
of Athens have furnished the aristocracy of 
learning and authority. When "aristocracy" 
was taken in its exact meaning, it included the 
best of society, who, by their inherited authority, 
by their wisdom and intelligence, by their phil- 
anthropy and beneficence, have governed, guid- 
ed and protected the people in paternalistic spirit. 
For this governing, intellectual citizenship, edu- 
cation was for culture, intellectual and esthetic. 
Its aim was to interpret the life of man in the 
vmiverse of nature — what its worthiest ideals, 
and how to live it. The attitude of the higher 
classes being paternalistic, the schools of the peo- 
ple were regarded as charities, supported by the 
voluntary gifts and service of wealth and cul- 
ture. As society became democratic, and the peo- 
ple came into possession of wealth and political 
power their schools have risen in social rank. 
Yet so persistent in this class distinction, that in 
as democratic and free a nation as England, the 
middle and aristocratic classes avoid the public 



42 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

schools ; and in our own country, until the re- 
vival of education, to which we have already al- 
luded, the common schools were treated in a 
spirit of charity, and ignored by many of the 
higher classes in favor of private schools, semin- 
aries and academies. This principle, then, has 
prevailed, that when the people govern and sup- 
port their own schools they assume the social dig- 
nity and rank of free people. In the transition of 
the public schools from schools of charity to free 
schools, the people have asserted their right, and 
have undertaken to solve the problem of life for 
the people — not how to sustain mere animal ex- 
istence, and not merelv to improve their condition 
within the limitations of social and intellectual 
servility, but to determine the rights, privileges 
and opportunities of men as human beings under 
the broad canopy of the Divine Fatherhood, and 
on the broad plane of human brotherhood, and to 
determine what knowledge they may rightfully 
claim of nature's laws and resources for the in- 
crease of their comforts and to make the homes 
of their children beautiful and happy. This is the 
revolutionary idea of popular education as against 
all class education. And that it was revolution- 
ary was forseen in England, when, in 1807, "The 
Poor Bill" was under discussion. This bill — sig- 
nifically named — was for a charitable improve- 



IN MINNESOTA 43 

ment of the intelligence of the laboring classes. 
"Mr. Davies Giddy opposing said : 'Giving educa- 
tion to the laboring classes would be prejudicial to 
their morals and happiness. It would teach them 
to despise their lot in life. Instead of making them 
good servants in agriculture and the like, to 
which society had destined them, they would be 
factious and refractory, they would read sedi- 
tious pamphlets, vicious books and publications 
against Christianity and become insolent to su- 
periors.' " ( De Montmorencey's State Interven- 
tion in English Education, p. 222.) 

As the people came into possession of institu- 
tions of higher education they enlarged its scope 
to include the utilization of intelligence and ma- 
terial resources in gaining the means whereby to 
live ; and this, not as an end, but as essential and 
preparatory to a higher type of living. What the 
higher classes had by inheritance as a basis of 
culture the people have had to gain by labor and 
skill before they could enter upon the higher life 
of leisurely study for culture and philosophic 
ease. In the development of elementary education 
we have passed out of the era of charitv into that 
of free schools for a free people, and no Ameri- 
can citizen loses caste or advantage in having 
been educated fn them. The history of state 
universities is a historv of a democratic move- 



44 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ment in which the people control the organization 
of higher education in their own interests. This 
history has three phases: (i.) The financial sup- 
port provided by the people; (2.) The adaptation 
of the curriculum to the needs of the people ; and 
(3.) The articulation of higher education with 
elementary education in the development of higli 
schools of secondary education. And this will 
give us the order of our treatment. 

Financial History of the State University. 

We recognize at the outset that the great men 
of our republic, who laid the foundations of our 
government, and outlined with quite prophetic 
vision the order of our western civilization, made 
generous provision for the education of the 
people. In 1851 u.pon recommendation of Gov- 
ernor Ramsey, the legislature memorialized con- 
gress for a grant of 100,000 acres of public lands 
for the endowment of a university. The same 
year Congress appropriated two townships 
(46,080 acres) for the support of a university in 
the territory of Minnesota. Next, in the act of 
Congress (Feb. 26, 1857) authorizing a state 
government, it was provided "that seventy-two 
sections of land shall be set apart and reserved 
for the use and support of a state university." 



IN MINNESOTA 45 

This was construed by the regents of the uni- 
versity as an additional grant to the state, and not 
a mere confirmation of the former territorial 
grant. However the Commissioner of the Gen- 
eral Land Office refused to take this view, and 
after repeated presentations of their claim by the 
regents, the matter was finally settled bv a con- 
gressional grant (July 8, 1870) "to the full 
amount of seventy-two sections mentioned in the 
act of Congress approved Feb. 26. 1857." Of 
the territorial grant, 36,560 acres had been se- 
lected, so making the total land grant to the state 
university 82,640 acres. ( U. S. Land Laws. Pub- 
lic Domain.) 

The history of the university, from the date of 
its establishment by the territtorial legislature 
(Feb. 185 1 ) to that of its reorganization under 
its present charter of (Feb. 18, 1868) is one of 
continuous struggle against adverse circum- 
stances, a premature organization under the 
stress of a frontier enthusiasm and hopefulness, 
which resulted in financial embarrassment, and 
the suspension of the educational department. 

The first building was erected in Minneapolis 
on a site donated by Franklin Steele, and lo- 
cated near Central Avenue, and what is known as 
the Exposition building. This was a two story 
frame structure, 50 by 30 feet, and costing $2500. 



46 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

With two rooms finished, a private school was 
opened by Rev. E. W. Merrill, to whom the re- 
gents gave the nse of the building. Beginning 
with 25 students, it increased to 65. "In 1854 the 
building was transferred to other hands in a com- 
promise regarding the title, which proved defec- 
tive." Mr. Merrill was appointed Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction, and the school was 
closed. The site of the present campus was lo- 
cated in 1854 bv the purchase of 27 acres at a 
cost of $6,000. Private contributions were made 
to the amount of $1000, and the remainder se- 
cured by mortgage with interest at twelve per 
cent. In 1856 the legislature authorized the re- 
gents to issue bonds "to an amount not exceeding 
the sum of $15,000 with interest thereon not ex- 
ceeding twelve per cent per annum, of said sum 
$5,000 to be applied in liquidation of a debt in- 
curred in the purchase of a site for said uni- 
versity, and $10,000 to be expended under the 
direction of the board of regents in erecting suit- 
able buildings for the same" ; these bonds to be 
secured by mortgage on "any lands now belonging 
or which may hereafter belong to the said uni- 
versity." The regents with $10,000 in hand, by 
a bare majority vote, adopted plans for a fine 
four story building 277 feet in length, and let the 
contract for the erection of one wine — now the 



IN MINNESOTA 47 

rear part of the present "Main building" — for 
the sum of $49,000. The financial crisis of 1857 
proved fatal to this venture. To save what they 
had the legislature extended the authority of the 
regents to- issue bonds for $40,000 in addition, to 
be likewise secured by mortgage on the lands of 
the university. ]n 1850 the building was com- 
pleted at a cost of $65,000. For eight years it re- 
mained unused, and nothing seemed to prosper 
excepting the interest on the debt, a part of 
which was at twenty per cent. 

In 1858 Rev. E. D. Xeill was elected Chancel- 
lor, and the next year he was made Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction ex-of^cio, from which 
position he resigned in 1861 to enter the army. 



Edward D. Neill was born in Philadelphia, August g, 
1823. He was graduated at Amherst in 1842, completed 
a theological course at Andover and was ordained to the 
ministry of the Presbyterian Cliurch. He removed to 
St. Paul in April, 1849, and became immediately identi- 
fied with the educational interests of Minnesota. He 
was at once made a trustee of the schools of St. Paul, 
and was one of the organizers of the State Historical 
Society. In 1851 he was appointed the first territorial 
superintendent of public instruction. In 1853 he secured 
a charter for the Baldwin School, St. Paul, and in 1855 
took a leading part in preparing the charter of the board 
of education of St. Paul. In 1858 he was elected 
Chancellor of the State University, and secured the 
charter of i860. He was made State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction in i860, from which he resigned in 
1861 and entered the army as Chaplain of the First 
Minnesota Regiment of Infantry. In 1864 he was ap- 



48 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

By act of legislature, approved Feb. 14, i860, 
the university was reorganized. Under this act 
the board of regents was made to consist of the 
"Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Chancellor of 
the University and five electors of the state, ap- 
pointed by the Governor, by and with the advice 
and consent of the Senate." It also provided for 
a "department for the training of teachers for 
the common schools of the state." . 

In their report to the Governor, dated Dec. i, 
i860, the regents made the following statement 
of the indebtedness of the university in amounts 
due : 

Site $ 4-833-34 

Building 19,130.69 

Bonds 59,511.70 

J. G. Riheldaffer 117.70 

Isaac Atwater (probably) . . 1,913.66 
Accumulated interest 8,000.00 



Total, - - - $93,506.66 

pointed special secretary of President Lincoln, and later, 
appointed consul to Dublin, Ireland, by President Grant. 
Upon his return, and during the remainder of his life, he 
gave his services chiefly to historical research and to ed- 
ucation in connection with the foundation of Macalester 
College, established by his friend Charles Macalester, of 
Philadelphia. 

His History of Minnesota, which appeared in five suc- 
cessive editions, is the only one of original research and 
authority for this state. 



IN MINNESOTA 49 

The regents farther reported that they were 
without resources for the hquidation of this 
indebtedness, and recommended that authority be 
given the board of regents to alienate sufficient 
of the lands of the territorial university to liquid- 
ate the indebtedness. Governor Ramsey, in his 
message to the legislature of 1861, approved this 
view of the regents, and recommended that the 
necessary legislation be enacted. 

By act of legislature, approved Mar. 8, 1862, 
the regents were "authorized and empowered in 
their discretion to arrange, compromise or liquid- 
ate any existing indebtedness," and "to grant, 
bargain or sell and convey to the holder or hold- 
ers of any such indebtedness, upon such terms as 
shall be agreed upon, any or all the lands here- 
tofore granted or reserved by Congress for the 
use and support of a state or territorial univer- 
sity." This act is explicit in providing "that 
nothing in this act shall be construed as an ad- 
mission on the part of the state, of the validity of 
the bonds and mortgages, executed by the Board 
of Regents of the late territorial university, or 
any obligation existing on the part of the state 

Dr. Neill was a man of forceful character, broad 
scholarship and public spirit. No man figured more 
prominently in the early history of education in Minne- 
sota. He died at his home in St. Paul, September 26, 
1893. 



so HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to pay the said liabilities." The same provision 
is made to apply to any notes executed pursuant 
to any vote or resolution of said Regents, "but 
said Regents of the University of Minnesota are 
hereby fully authorized and empowered, in their 
discretion to compromise and adjust any indebt- 
edness arising upon said notes, or to contest and 
resist payment of the same as they may be ad- 
vised, or shall deem most conducive to the inter- 
ests of the state, or of said university." 

This was amended by an act approved March 
4, 1864, in which a new board of Regents was 
named, to wit, O. C. Merriman and John S. Pills- 
bury of Minneapolis, and John Nichols of St. 
Paul, for a term of tv/o years. Each was re- 
quired to give bonds in the sum of $25,000. The 
specific duties of the board were to adjust the in- 
debtedness already referred to ; and for this pur- 
pose they were authorized to make sales of not to 
exceed 12,000 acres of the lands donated by the 
United States for university purposes. 

To the financial ability and the disinterested 
services of the three men who constituted this 
new board the state is indebted for the removal 
of the incubus of that great debt. Such services 
are so dependent upon quiet shrewdness, and 
upon personal influence that never comes to light, 
that no record can be made of the details of their 



IN MINNESOTA 51 

labors. Suffice it to say, that as men prominent 
in affairs of politics and business, men held in 
highest esteem by their fellow citizens of the 
cities and the state in which they lived, and 
highly appreciative of the higher educational in- 
terests of the state, they gave the best they had in 
time and labor to the adjustment of these vex- 
ing claims. This special mention of the names 
of Mr. Merriman and IN'Ir. Nichols, associated 
with Mr. Pillsbury in this important service, is 
the more appropriate by reason of the fact that 
the continued service of Mr. Pillsbury in the in- 
terest of the university from that day to the day 
of his decease (1901) has made him so renowned 
as the "Father of the University," that we are in 
danger of forgetting that in his earliest service, 
and at a time when prospects were darkest, these 
two men — Mr. Merriman and Mr. Nichols — 
stood with him, and divided with him the labor 
of extricating the university from its impending 
peril. In the day of our university's greatest 
prosperity, let the names of these three men be 
mentioned together as its financial saviors in the 
darkest day of its history. In a word, the indebt- 
edness was finally cancelled with the proceeds of 
15.000 acres, and so leaving some 30,000 acres 
of selected lands of the territorial grant in the 
possession of the university. 



52 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

We are now at the threshold of a new era of 
substantial prosperity and development for the 
university. 

John S. Pillsbury, 

Regent of the University. 

At this point it is fitting that we note, once for 
all, that this coming history of the university can- 
not be written without making it likewise a his- 
tory of Regent John S. Pillsbury. From 1863, 
the date of his first appointment as regent, he 
continued in that relation to the time of his de- 
cease. As private citizen, as State Senator, and 
as Governor (i877-'82), for thirty-eight long 

John Sargent Pillsbury was born in Sutton, New 
Hampshire, July 29, 1828. His school life was limited 
to the schools of his native village. Leaving school at 
sixteen he began the trade of a painter, but soon changed 
to that of a salesman, aad at twenty-one became a part- 
ner in business. Removing to Concord after two years, 
he engaged in business four years, and in 1855 started 
westward and located at St. Anthony of this state. Here 
he continued in the hardware business with the fortunes 
that attended the panic of 1857 and a severe loss by fire 
without insurance. As a man of business he regained 
all losses, and by diligence, integrity and business 
sagacity accumulated a goodly fortune from which he 
drew largely in public and private beneficences. Nota- 
able among these are the erection of a public library for 
his native village, a public library for East Minneapolis, 
a boarding home for young women for Minneapolis, 
named for his wife, The Maliala Fisk Pillsbury Home, 
and to the State University, its biological science hall. 




JOHN S. PILLSBURY 



IN MINNESOTA 53 

years the university was his constant care. TTis 
financial abihty was given to the management 
and increase of its revenues, in the selection of its 
public lands, and in the expenditure of its funds, 
from the purchase of the agricultural farm and 
the erection of buildings down to auditing the in- 
dividual bills for current expenses. Whenever 
the university needed his credit, or an advance 
of his money to meet an exigency, without osten- 
tation, he freely advanced it. Whenever a friend 
of the university, or a member of the faculty, or 
an undergraduate student wished to consult him 
upon any matter that related to education in the 
university, his house was open and a welcome 
given. For the university he lived: he endured 
detraction in the most troublous times — and that 
is v/hen calumniators are most active — he sac- 
rificed leisure and comfort, and gave as a me- 
mento of his enduring interest one of the impos- 

In 1863 Mr. Pillsbury was made a regent of the Uni- 
versity, in which position he was continued during his 
lifetime. In 1863 he was elected State Senator from 
Hennepin county, and was re-elected for the four suc- 
ceeding terms. In 1875 hs was elected Governor of the 
state, and was re-elected for the two succeeding terms, 
closing his career as Governor, January 10, 1882. 

During the last years of his life his time was given to 
a general oversight of his private business and benevo- 
lences, but chiefly and laboriously to the upbuilding of 
the State University. His decease occurred October 18, 
igoi. 



54 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ing halls that adorns the campus, and now bears 
his name. And, finally, those who have received 
from him, and have loved to honor him, have 
erected their own testimonial to his memory in 
the statue of bronze that stands upon and adorns 
the canipus that it may bring to our memories 
the features that express the nobility of his char- 
acter and the beneficence of his service to the 
university and to the State. 

The Beginnings of University Life. 

In his message to the second legislature 
(1851) Governor Ramsey recommended that a 
university be established ; and by act approved 
Feb. 13, 1851, the University of Minnesota was 
established. The important provisions of this act 
were : ( i ) That a board of twelve regents be 
elected by the legislature for a term of six years. 
(2) That the university be located at or near the 
Falls of St. Anthony. (3) That the regents shall 
have control of all funds appropriated for the 
erection of buildings and other necessary equip- 
ment of the vmiversity, and also of all lands 
granted by Congress for the maintenance of 
higher education. 

The first board of regents consisted of Isaac 
Atwater, J. B. Thurber, William R. Marshall, B. 
B. Meeker, Socrates Nelson, Henry M. Rice, 



IN MINNESOTA 55 

Alexander Ramsey, Henry H. Sibley, C. K. 
Smith, Franklin Steele, N. C. D. Taylor, and 
Abram Van Vorhees. Edward D. Neill was elect- 
ed Chancellor, and became ex-officio Territoiial 
Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

The succeeding years were years of struggle 
with the financial conditions of the university as 
has been already noted, so that until the settle- 
ment of these difficulties in the payment of debts 
and in the increase of the government grants of 
1862, and the added university grant of 1870, the 
university was practically without an educational 
history. With the encouragement of freedom 
from debt, with the general prosperity of the 
state, and with a state appropriation of $15,000 — 
the first one by the state for the university — for 
repairs and furnishings for the building, a pre- 
paratory department was opened in October 1867 
— W. W. Washburn, Principal, and Gabriel 
Campbell and Ira Moore assistants. The report 
of the principal for the second year (1868) shows 
a faculty of five and an attendance of 100. 

The Presidency of William W. Folwell. 

In 1869, Colonel Wm. W. Folwell was elected 
to the presidency of the university. This year be- 
gan with a faculty of nine, an enrollment of 217 
in the preparatory department and a freshmen 



56 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

class of thirteen, of whom two were graduated in 
1873 ^^^th the B.A. degree. 

The administration of President Folwell con- 
tinued from 1869 to 1883, and as acting presi- 
dent to June 1884 — a term of fifteen years. In 
its academic history, this corresponds to the finan- 
cial history of the university, — a period of fer- 
ment and experiment, all tending toward per- 
manent organization. 

The general lack of preparatory schools made 
the instruction of the university largely prepara- 
tory in three classes below the freshman year. 
The small collegiate enrollment and the poverty 
of the state required that professors teach in sev- 
eral lines at the same time, as that French was 
taught by the professor of chemistry, in addition 
to geology, mineralogy, botany and physiology. 
The curriculum was mainly the traditional one 
of classical colleges, Greek, Latin, mathematics 
and philosophy, history and the natural sciences 
holding a subordinate rank. 

The educational problems of those days were 
quite as pressing as those of the present, and in 
some cases occasioned personal feelings and an- 
tagonisms similar to those of the financial world. 
First, the question of co-education came up at 
the opening of the university under Principal 
Washburn. College traditions had always limited 



IN MINNESOTA 57 

the privileges of higher education to men ; and 
this view was represented by the new faculty in 
opposing the admission of women as students in 
the university. The regents were more respons- 
ive to the growing popular sentiment, and, over- 
ruling the judgment of the faculty, decided in 
favor of admitting women on equal footing with 
men. The second stage of progress came under 
the administration of President Folwell, the ar- 
ticulation of the industrial sciences and depart- 
ments with the college of science, literature and 
the arts. The Charter had provided for the es- 
tablishing of "five or more colleges or depart- 
ments, that is to say, a department of elementary 
instruction, a college of science, literature and 
the arts, a college of agriculture and the mechanic 
arts, including military tactics, a college or de- 
partment of law and also a college or depart- 
ment of medicine." 

The land grant already considered applied par- 
ticularly to the college of science, literature and 
the arts. For a "college of agriculture, including 
military tactics" a grant was made by Congress 
in 1862. To this we shall refer later. At pres- 
ent, we note that in the planning for the future 
the regents recognized the enlarging scope of 
education as demanded by our developing in- 
dustrial civilization. A third problem was recog- 



58 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

nized by President Folwell, and deserves this spe- 
cial notice, because the educational world, after 
thirty years, is coming to realize its importance. 
Hitherto, higher education had been for general 
culture, and of the classic and philosophic type. 
Now that higher education is to serve the indus- 
tries, and that the skill and intelligence required 
in their pursuit demands long and special study 
in preparation, shall students be required to com- 
plete the four years collegiate course before reg- 
ularly entering upon their professional prepar- 
ation ? President Folwell, in his inaugural ad- 
dress (Dec. 22, 1869) outlined a plan by which 
the collegiate and disciplinary work should con- 
clude with the sophomore year, and that higher 
graduate and professional work begin with the 
jvmior year. This plan assumed that in the pre- 
paratory classes of the university, and ultimately 
of the secondary schools, the necessary instruc- 
tion should be given that would make these two 
collegiate years of high grade, and would also 
make the third year the beginning of such elect- 
ive studies as pertain directly to the prospective 
industrial and professional callings of students. 
This scheme was adopted by the regents and con- 
tinued in a tentative manner through the admin- 
istration of President Folwell, but was finally 
abandoned at the beginning; of the followinsf ad- 



IN MINNESOTA 59 

ministration. Its suspension was due to the lack 
of good preparatory schools, in being quite op- 
posed to the traditional collegiate organization, 
and not generally approved in the faculty of the 
university. We had imposed the university name 
upon collegiate instruction without introducing 
university methods. President Folwell proposed 
to shorten collegiate instruction, which is aca- 
demic and disciplinary, in the interest of strictly 
university and professional study, to begin with 
what we know as the junior year. That he an- 
ticipated a genuine demand of American educa- 
tion, appears in this, that just now our great uni- 
versities, as Harvard and Columbia and Chicago, 
have under consideration the shortening of the 
academic course in this professional interest. 

The Presidency of Cyrus Northrop. 

The administration of President Northrop 
opened in 1884, ^"d has been continuous to the 
present time. It may be justly named the era of 
expansion. The lines of development had be- 
come defined. The personal antagonisms that 
arose from financial embarrassments and personal 
differences as to educational policy had disap- 
peared. The state had become populous and 
wealthy, the system of preparatory instruction in 
high schools had bec-^me well developed, and the 



6o HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

land grant endowment had become large -rnd 
productive. The people felt strong and aspiring, 
and the regents sought the man who with a broad 
vision could comprehend the situation, could har- 
monize the active forces and give freedom of 
growth to each as the times demanded. Such a 
man they found in Cyrus Northrop of Nvw 
Haven. Under his wise administration the uni- 
versity has won the entire confidence of the pub- 
lic, has received the generous support of the leg- 
islature in greatly increased appropriations, and 
an increase in students in every department, from 
310 in 1884, of whom a large part were in the 
preparatory department, to over 3500 in all de- 
partments at the present time. During this time 
the several departments contemplated in the 
charter have been organized and developed. The 
accompanying tables will show the dates of or-, 
ganization and the annual enrollment. 

The Support of the University 

consists of ( I ) Income from U. S. land grants ; 
(2) Government money appropriations; (3) The 
^^/loo state mill tax ; (4) Tuitions in the law and 
medical departments; and (5) Registration fees 
in the academic departments. 

I. The U. S. land grants consist of the Uni- 
versity grant which we have considered, and the 



IN MINNESOTA 6i 

Agricultural land grant of 1862, appropriating 
120,000 acres for the benefit of agriculture and 
the mechanic arts. As we shall later refer to this 
grant and its history, it is sufficient to say that by 
act of legislature approved Feb. 18, 1868, the 
two grants were merged, and the fund accruing 
from the sale of the lands is now known as the 
Permanent University Fund. For the farther 
encouragment of education in agriculture and the 
mechanic arts Congress, by act approved Aug. 3, 
1890, made a standing appropriation for this and 
other states of $15,000 the first year, with an in- 
crease of $1000 each succeeding year until it 
should reach the sum of $25,000, at which sum it 
should remain permanent. 

2. The appropriations by the state have been 
for buildings, equipment and current expenses. 
For the latter a standing appropriation of ^Vjoo 
of a mill was voted in 1S93, increased to "°/ioo 
in 1895 ^^''d to -Vioo in 1897, upon the assessed 
valuation of the property of the state. 

The table accompanying this narrative gives the 
aggregate amounts received from all sources for 
its support as reported by the State Auditor. 

Buildings. 

In 1884 there was but one of the present group 
of buildings on the campus — the Main building. 



62 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Since that time 19 new buildings have been ad- 
ded to the campus and 18 to the campus of the 
School of Agriculture and Experiment Station. 
The aggregate expenditure of the state for all 
buildings has been $1,450,642. 

Industrial Education. 

We have already observed that a history of 
education is more than a record of the increase 
of its material resources in funds and buildings. 
These are the foundation and framework of a 
successful system ; but the history itself, that in 
which all else finds its value, is in its adaptation 
to the developing life of the people. The ancient 
university and all its colleges belonged to an 
aristocratic civilization. The state university be- 
longs to the people, and, accordingly, must be 
democratic. It must not only be great as the 
crown and ornament of the people's schools, it 
must be greatest in service. 

It has been the fortune of Minnesota to develop 
its institutions at a time when the great industrial 
problems of our modern civilization are pressing 
upon us, and our history must, therefore, be a con- 
tribution to their solution. We have not been per- 
mitted merely to take on the forms of an older 
civilization, and to plant institutions of a tradi- 
tional type. We are compelled to move on, to ap- 



IN MINNESOTA 63 

ply democratic principles to new conditions ; and 
our honors will be awarded as future generations 
shall pronounce us equal to our opportunities. 
The problem of industrial education was intro- 
duced by the act of Congress, approved July 2, 
1862, whereby there was apportioned to the sev- 
eral states "an amount of public land equal to 
30,000 acres for each Senator and Representative 
in Congress to which the states are respectively 
entitled under the census of i860;" "that the 
monies accruing from the sale of said lands shall 
be invested and shall constitute a perpetual fund, 
the capital of which shall forever be undimin- 
ished, and the interest of which shall be inviolably 
appropriated by each state which may take and 
claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, 
support and maintenance of at least one college, 
where the leading object shall be, without ex- 
cluding other scientific and classical studies, and 
including military tactics, to teach such branches 
of learning as are related to agriculture and the 
mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures 
of the states may respectively prescribe, in order 
to promote the liberal and practical education of 
the industrial classes in the several pursuits and 
professions of life." (U. S. Land Laws. 1862. 
ch. 130.) 

As mav be inferred from the sreneral and in- 



64 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

definite character of the conditions of this grant, 
there existed only the undefined feehng that 
higher education must address itself to the intel- 
lectual improvement and skill of the industrial 
classes. The application of the principle express- 
ed in this law, and the utilization of the fund 
provided, involved two questions ; First, how 
shall this industrial education be organized ? Shall 
a new institution be established to be devoted to 
the purposes contemplated in this bill? or, shall 
this instruction be given as a part of the curricu- 
lum of the established colleges and universities of 
the states? And, second, in what manner shall 
this instruction be given so as to serve most ef- 
fectually the desired end? 

The Agricultural College. 

Regarding the first question, both views were 
entertained, and both plans have been tried in 
the various states. Confining ourselves to Min- 
nesota, by act of legislature approved March lo, 
1858, a quantity of land in McLeod County was 
"set aside for the purpose of an experimental 
farm and a site for an Agricultural College," to 
be "under the control of the President and Ex- 
ecutive Committee of the State Agricultural So- 
ciety." The Board of Education of the Agricul- 
tural College was to consist of twelve members, 



IN MINNESOTA 65 

to be elected by the members of the State Agri- 
cultural Society. In 186 1 the legislature donated 
to this college all the "swamp lands" within the 
boundaries of McLeod County. 

The conditions of the times in financial strin- 
gency, Indian wars and the Civil war prevented 
all action under this law, and nothing was done 
until after the war, in 1866. 

The Legislature had accepted the Agricultural 
land grant (Jan. 27, 1863), and had authorized 
the Commissioner of the General Land Office to 
select the lands donated. This donation of lands 
and the close of the war revived the interests of 
the Agricultural College, and the question pressed 
for decision, what disposition shall be made of 
the agricultural land grant? And just here, let it 
be noted, that while the grant was to serve three 
interests, agriculture, mechanic arts and military 
tactics, agriculture being the predominating in- 
dustry in Minnesota, it took precedence, and all 
discussions were conducted on this assumption. 
The college is known as the agricultural college, 
and the grant, as the agricultural land grant. Me- 
chanic arts and military tactics have always been 
recognized, but rather as attachments than as 
leading interests contemplated in the grant. 

In the disposition of the grant, the presumption 
was in favor of the agricultural college already 



66 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

established. The state university having pro- 
vided in its charter for the organization of a col- 
lege of agriculture and mechanic arts, it was urged 
by the representatives of the university that the 
best interests of the state and of the industries 
named in the grant would be served by uniting 
this with the university grant in the support of 
a college of agriculture and mechanic arts as a 
department of the university. The financial con- 
dition of the university was still uncertain, the 
regents, Pillsbury, Merriman and Nichols, were 
not yet ready to report, and to meet the ex- 
igencies of 1866, and preserve the grant intact, 
under the management of Senator Pillsbury, by 
an act approved Mar. 2, 1866. the grant was made 
over to the Agricultural College at Glencoe. In 
1867 the regents reported the university indebt- 
edness liquidated, with 32,000 acres of the terri- 
torial grant still in possession of the university. 
Quoting from an address of Regent Pillsbury be- 
fore the alumni of the university : "The friends 
of Mr. Hill (representing the Glencoe Agricul- 
tural College) held a conference with the Senator 
from East Hennepin (Regent Pillsbury) on 
the question of uniting the agricultural college 
grant with that of the luiiversity, as it was ap- 
parent to them that they could not obtain appro- 
priations for buildings, and that the grant was 



IN MINNESOTA 67 

likelv to be divided up among the normal schools, 
the Senator advocating- that it would be much bet- 
ter for Hill's institution, the university, the state, 
the friends of agriculture and of education, to 
consolidate the two grants and thus make a good 
strong educational institution, which view Mr. 
Hill and his friends finally accepted, with the pro- 
vision that the swamp lands which had been 
granted bv the state to the agricultural college 
should be re-granted to the County of McLeod, 
to endow Stevens's Seminary, which seminary 
was to be established and organized by an act of 
that present legislature. The friends of each in- 
stitution were to co-operate in the passage of the 
bill to consolidate the agricultural college grant 
with the university, and to endov/ Stevens's Sem- 
inary by the transfer of the swamp lands former- 
ly granted by the state to the agricultural col- 
lege." 

The act of consolidation was approved Feb. 18, 
1868. "An act to establish Stevens's Seminary" 
and endow the same with 4684 acres of swamp 
land, was also passed by the legislature and be- 
came a law, March 6, 1868." 

It was recognized at the time, and is still well 
known to our older citizens, that the leading re- 
sponsibility and management of this plan of 
transfer was with the Senator and Recent Pills- 



68. HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

bury. To this interest he gave his individual at- 
tention and efforts until its final accomplishment. 
With the remains of the territorial grant, the 
state university grant, made in 1870, and the ag- 
ricultural grant of 120,000 acres, the university 
had an available endowment of some 200,000 
acres for its support. The increase of the Per- 
manent Fund accruing from the sale of lands 
will be seen in the table attached. 

Agricultural Education. 

The second, and no less difficult problem, was 
how to meet the requirements of this grant in a 
manner satisfactory to the public sentiment which 
prompted it. If it had been required to carry out 
technical and detailed instructions, so leaving 
the responsibility of success or failure with those 
who imposed them, the course of the university 
would have been simple and comparatively easy. 
On the contrary, the grant practically imposed 
upon the university the task of devising a course 
of instruction and training which would make 
the culture and scientific knowledge of our higher 
education available for agricultural life. 

To realize the difficulty, we must take into ac- 
count the conditions under which this demand 
was to be satisfied. It will be remembered that 
in the early history of education all claims to its 



IN MINNESOTA 69 

advantages were limited to free citizens ; and 
that as citizenship was extended by the enter- 
prise, thrift and struggles of the people, educa- 
tion and its institutions widened their doors and 
extended their curricula. In this progress the 
trades and burghers of cities and towns took pre- 
cedence, while the laborers on farms have been 
the last to receive recognition. From time im- 
memorial they have been peasants, serfs and 
•slaves, confined to the country, and excluded 
from the privileges of culture and the schools. 
This was true in Greece, in Rome, and has been 
true in modern Europe down to the present. In 
America, at the opening of this question of agri- 
cultural education, the sentiment was practically 
universal among all educators and educated men 
that the farmer has, and can have, no use for 
more than a common school education. And 
when farmers' sons went to schools of higher edu- 
cation it was to rise above farm life into the more 
remunerative, and the more respectable occupa- 
tions of mercantile and professional life. There 
existed an educational caste spirit which excluded 
agriculture, and which intensified the determin- 
ation of talented and ambitious sons of farmers 
to escape its conditions. It has been the boast of 
great men, that, born and reared as farmers, they 
have risen to positions of political and social dis- 



;o HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

tinction. A third condition, and one not distinct 
from the preceding, was, that the teaching body 
of the rising schools was necessarily selected 
from the schools of classical cnlture, — at that 
time the predominant ones. Whether the agri- 
cultural schools were incorporated as departments 
of the regular university, as in our own, or or- 
ganized as separate agricultural colleges, the feel- 
ing of the faculty, and the sentiment of the stu- 
dent body, was that agricultural education was an 
incongruity, if not an absurdity. The conviction 
prevailed that the general culture of regular col- 
leges served the purposes of all occupations, even 
that of agriculture for those who chose to pur- 
sue it. The one result that followed was univer- 
sal east and west, that farmer students were so- 
cially an ostracised class, and that the better class 
of students soon changed their courses.^ 
These then, were the general conditions 
prevailing over the entire country, and un- 
der which the University of Minnesota had 
to solve the problem of agricultural education. 

In establishing a College of Agriculture as a 
department of the university, Minnesota followed 
the example of Wisconsin, while ^Michigan and 
Iowa were of those states which separated their 
industrial colleges from the university, and or- 
ganized them in distinct institutions. Beginning 



IN MINNESOTA 71 

with 1868, the date of the present charter, an ex- 
perimental farm of 96 acres, and located just 
east of the campus, was purchased for $8,500, and 
Professor E. H. Twining was elected to the de- 
partment of Science and Agriculture. A pre- 
paratory course of two years was offered "adapt- 
ed to the wants of students fitting for the agri- 
cultural college." The studies of the first year 
were arithmetic, grammar and composition, geog- 
raphy, algebra and physiology ; and of the sec- 
ond year, algebra, bookkeeping, natural philoso- 
phy, and chemistry. 

For the following twenty years the history of 
this department is one of struggle and experi- 
ment to satisfy the demand for an agricultural 
education. In his first report President Fohvell 
gives his estimate of the importance of high in- 
tellectual training for students of agriculture, and 
says , "that mere manual dexterity and technical 
cleverness are not the final wants of American 
farmers and artisans." In his report to the Leg- 
islature, the President of the Board of Regents 
says , "Thus far, all the students who have de- 
iired work have been employed in taking care of 
die university buildings, the farm and the 
grounds. The number of students who signify the 
desire to pursue the agricultural course continues 
to be small. But all things are in readiness, 



^2 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and we only need to have tlie farmers send 
their sons to put this department in a flourishing 
condition." Again, in their report of 1873, the 
regents say, "The regents do not think it juchc- 
ious to spend a large amount on experimental 
farming until students present themselves who 
are desirous of instruction in agriculture." And 
President Folwell, in his report of the same year 
says , "So far as I am aware, not a single young 
man has come here desiring to learn the science 
of farming in order to practice it." And again, 
in 1877 President Folwell says, "The number of 
farmers' sons in attendance seeking instruction 
in, general science and letters, is, as heretofore, 
very large, while the number of students of sci- 
entific agriculture does not increase, and proba- 
bly cannot be materially agumented until our agri- 
culturists learn to diversify their products, and 
cease to raise for market a single staple." 

The New Experimental Farm. 

By legislative authority, granted in 1881, the 
regents proceeded to the sale of the old experi- 
mental farm, and to re-invest in the one now oc- 
cupied. In this transaction Regent Pillsbury as- 
sumed the entire responsibility, and gave his time 
and financial skill toward gaining the greatest 
possible advantage to the department of agricul- 



IN MINNESOTA -72, 

ture, and with a heartiness as if the profits were 
to be his own. Under liis direction the old farm 
was platted into some 300 lots, and at ptiblic auc- 
tion (Oct. II, 1882) one half of them were sold 
for $47,400. 

The new farm was known as the "Bass Farm", 
located on the Como road, between the Twin 
Cities, and consisted of 155 acres. This was 
bought for $200 an acre, or $31,000. The entire 
surplus, after paying for the new farm, was de- 
voted to its improvement and the erection of 
buildings for the accommodation of the depart- 
ment of agriculture. 

And yet, the problem of agricultural educa- 
tion was not solved. Whether the farmers them- 
selves were really ready to support the depart- 
ment, or whether what was offered was not 
adapted to the agricultural conditions and de- 
mands, was in dispute. 

It appears from the records, that for twenty- 
five years the department of agriculture was al- 
most literally without patronage. One, two, and 
three students was the limit of enrollment ; and 
one graduate in each of the years '80, '83, '85, 
'87, was the result in the completed course. 

The eighties were years of general social and 
political agitation among the agricultural classes. 
Farmers were inquiring how they were to better 



74 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

their conditions. They organized neighborhood 
granges, co-operative enterprises and farmers' al- 
Hances. They asserted themselves, not only in 
agricnltural matters, but in politics and education. 
As a part of this movement, they turned their 
attention to the Agricultural Land Grant, and the 
service it ought to render, and was rendering to 
the farmers of Minnesota. Violent attacks were 
made upon the university administration, charg- 
ing the regents with deliberately robbing the far- 
mers' fund in the interest of the university. All 
these attacks and criticisms were pointed to the 
one man who for those twenty years had given 
his best thought and labor to the solution of the 
problems of the new university in a new state. 
The singleness of his purpose, and the greatness 
of his achievements, had made him the single 
mark of all the criticisms and insinuations of bad 
faith that attached to this painful chapter of uni- 
versity history. Above all financial successes, 
Regent Pillsbury held most sacred and dear to 
himself his good name, and to no thrust was he 
so sensitive as that which aimed at his integrity 
of purpose. A searching legislative investigation 
sustained every claim, and vindicated every act of 
the regents. 

In 1887, and again in 1889. a bill was introduced 
in the legislature separating the agricultural col- 



IN MINNESOTA 75 

lege and land grant from the university, and 
placing them under a separate board as a separ- 
ate institution. So worn out was this "father of 
the university" with these harrassing attacks, 
that in the midst of the conflict he expressed him- 
self as willing that the separation should be made, 
provided that there might be saved to the univer- 
sity the valuable lands of the state farm Avhich 
was the product of his personal financiering and 
labor, in which the state had invested originally 
but $8,500. 

The School of Agriculture. 

This brings us to what we may note as the 
second chapter in the history of our Agricultural 
education. As Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion and ex-officio regent of the university, 
(1881-1893) the writer was, during this period, 
both officially and professionally related to the ed- 
ucational interests of the state and the uni- 
versity. It may, therefore, seem not out of place, 
if, as a factor of the times, he offers some of his 
own experiences and contributions to the adjust- 
ment of the subject that was engrossing public 
attention. 

All important contributions to social and edu- 
cational progress must find their origin in the 
history of the times. Asrricultural education is no 



76 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

exception to this law. Those who are conversant 
with the educational history of the eighties, will 
recall that in the National Educational Associa- 
tion, which discussed living questions, and so re- 
presented the educational trend of the times, 
the manual training problem was then the 
all-engrossing one. It was not a question 
of professional schools for specialists ; it was 
rather a claim for the practical training of the eye 
and hand of youth in the schools, a claim for 
manual training as a part of their education for 
life. For successive years the ground was fought 
over between those who represented pure intellec- 
tual culture, and those who claimed a culture val- 
ue for manual training, and a corresponding place 
in the school curriculum. The heroic leader who 
fought the battle for manual training was Dr. C. 
M. Woodward of Washington University, St. 
Louis. 

Present, as Regent Kiehle was, through all 
these discussions, and also in contact with rural 
conditions as a frequent lecturer at school and 
agricultural meetings, and interested as well in 
the problems of the university, he gave this ques- 
tion much careful attention, and, after visiting 
manual training schools and agricultural colleges 
east and west, submitted for public consideration 
a plan for the organization of a school of agricul- 



IN MINNESOTA .^^ 

ture to the public press in Feb.. 1889, to the 
Board of Regents at their meeting following, 
and to the National Educational Association at 
its St. Paul meeting in 1889. 

The following extracts will indicate the essen- 
tial features of the plan proposed. 

"In the organization of a school of agriculture, 
us ii seems to me, the following considerations 
should govern. 

"I. It should meet the demands of the young 
farmers who desire a knowledge of such matters 
of business, science, and agricultural experience 
as belong to their calling. 

"2. It should receive them at the close of a 
common school training, and at an age not 
}'Ounger than fifteen years. 

"3. As it is intended for those who live and 
labor on the farm, the term should include the 
months during which they are at leisure, say, 
from Nov. i to April i. 

"4. The courses of the school should be mostly 
objective, manual, practical and scientific; and 
in its results should accomplish the following: 
(a) It should cultivate the taste and abilities of 
agricultural life. The student should, therefore, 
pursue his school life as closely as possible with 
his life on the farm. To be absent too long and 
to become accustomed to other surroundingfs will 



78 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

wean from the farm. Hence, a course to be com- 
pleted by winter terms has two advantages. It 
leaves to the student the working season in which 
to apply his learning and earn wages for his 
support. It also continues his life on the farm 
without a long break, and so strengthens rather 
than weakens his taste for his chosen calling, 
(b) It should cultivate his powers of observation 
and judgment, and his manual skill in lines be- 
longing to his occupation, (c) It should make 
him acquainted with the elements of thofe 
branches of science most immediately allied to his 
calling." 

Then, after outlining, I., The General Business 
Course ; II., The Scientific and Manual Training 
Course, and III., The Lecture Course, the fol- 
lowing : 

"If this plan is reasonable, we shall have in the 
fruit of it a school that will be, both as to expense 
and preparation, within the reach of farmers of 
ordinary thrift. It will give what'all intelligent 
farmers should have, namely, a good business ed- 
ucation of a high school grade, fair mechanical 
skill, with the habit of themselves making and 
mending rather than buying; a practical knowl- 
edge of the alphabet of the natural sciences so 
that they can read and observe intelligently in 
the lines of their work. All this in the school of 



IN MINNESOTA 79 

agriculture. Beyond this is our college of agri- 
culture, in which these subjects will be continued 
to meet the demands of the fewer, and that most 
important class in agriculture, lecturers, profes- 
sors, physicians and statesmen." 

This plan was promptly considered and adopt- 
ed by the board of regents, of whom no member 
was more appreciative of its reasonableness, and 
more ready to make the trial of its efficiency, than 
the regent who had borne both the labors of ser- 
vice and the calumny of opposition. It was re- 
solved to erect a single building at a cost of some 
$40,000, which should at once afiford the conven- 
iences of educational, culinary and dormitory ser- 
vice. The school was opened Oct. 18, 1888, to 
continue to April 17. 1888. In the History of Ed- 
ucation in Minnesota, issued by the United States 
Bureau of Education, is the following comment 
by Hon. S. M. Owen, then regent of the univer- 
sity. "No proposition suggested in the foregoing 
met with more adverse criticism than the one to 
hold the school during the winter months, when 
it was said, practical agriculture could not be 
taught, since the opportunity for object lessons in 
crop growing and conditions for practice would 
be wanting. But experience has confirmed the 
predictions of Professor Kiehle. ]\Iany of the 
disadvantages of teaching practical subjects in the 



8o HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

winter have been overcome by means of plants, 
animals, machines, charts, models, and other il- 
lustrative material which from year to year is be- 
ing collected. The boy receives instruction during 
the winter that he is eager to put in practice on 
the farm during the succeeding summer. While 
at work there he discovers defects in his educa- 
tion that cause him to look forward with pleasant 
anticipation to the second term of the school, 
when the defects may be remedied." 

The school opened under the principalship of 
William W. Pendergast, and with an enrollment 
of 47 students. From the first, the school was a 
standing protest against the plan of separation 
embodied in the bill of 1889, ^^^ the immediate 
and continued success of the school caused all op- 
position to melt away. 

Under the wise management of its officers and 
instructors it has merited and won the enthusias- 
tic support of the agriculturists of the state, 
and has received from the legislature every ap- 
propriation asked for in buildings and equip- 
ment ; and has become the center about which 
have clustered the experiment station, farmers' 
institutes, dairy schools and the stated agricultur- 
al meetings. 

In 1897 upon the motion of the farmers them- 
selves, it was determined to open a department 



IN MINNESOTA 8i 

for the daughters of farmers, in which the aim 
should be the culture and education of home- 
makers. It has been made to include the culture 
of home life, the domestic occupations of the 
complete home in domestic science, cooking, sew- 
ing", dairying, horticulture, and whatever prom- 
ises to make the home of the prosperous Ameri- 
can farmer wholesome and attractive. For the 
care, comfort and home culture of these young 
ladies, the state has provided most liberal accom- 
modations in buildings, equipment and instruc- 
tion. 

The appended table shows that in the fourteen 
years of the existence of this school the atten- 
dance of young men has increased from 47 in 
1889 to 328 in 1902; and the total number of 
graduates 353. Of these graduates, 82 per cent, 
are employed at present in agriculture and the 
allied branches. In the young ladies' department, 
during the five }*ears of its existence, the enroll- 
ment has grown from 33 in 1898 to 122 in 1902; 
and the graduates from three in 1899 to 23 in 
1902. 

The support which this school gives to the Col- 
lege of Agriculture appears in this, that the ag- 
gregate enrollment in this college for the period 
of the school has been 179. 



82 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Professional Departments, 

The professional colleges of law and medicine 
have, for many centuries, been identified with 
university education, and have been patronized 
by the students of government and science. These 
colleges were readily and naturally opened as the 
regents considered the time propitious. The De- 
partment of Medicine, the outgrowth of the med- 
ical examining board established in 1883, was 
organized in 1888, with Dr. Perry H. Millard as 
its first dean. In buildings, laboratories and 
general equipment it is thoroughly provided, and 
sustains a four year course. It contains the Col- 
leges of I, Medicine and Surgery; 2, Homeo- 
pathic Medicine and Surgery; 3, Dentistry, and 
4, Pharmacy. The total enrollment of all col- 
leges for the last year (i90i-'o2) was 551, and 
the number of alumni, 728. 

The College of Law was organized in 1888 
under the deanship of \Y. S. Pattee, LL. D. 
Its development has been rapid in enrollment, and 
its curriculum takes high rank for its scholarship 
and thoroughness Its enrollment for 1 901 -'02 
was 503 ; and its alumni number, 857. 

Department of Pedagogy. 

The complete history of the university, in the 



IN MINNESOTA 83 

organization of its departments to meet the de- 
mands of modern life, requires a record of tiie 
development of the department of pedagogy, or 
the science of education. A half century ago, the 
public mind was impressed with the importance 
of the common schools, and with the necessity 
for trained teachers. This was known as the nor- 
mal school movement, and of which we have al- 
ready treated. In laying the broad foundations 
of the university this interest was recognized, and* 
in the act of 1851, establishing the university, it 
was provided that the "university shall consist 
of five departments." one of these being "the de- 
partment of the theory and practice of elementary 
instruction." Again, after the organization of the 
state, the legislature, in i860, provided that "there 
shall also be a department for the training of 
teachers for the common schools of the state in 
which shall be taught the theory and practice of 
teaching, and everything that will tend to perfect 
the elementary and other schools of the state." 
It is well worth while that we recognize the dem- 
ocratic attitude of the friends of the university, 
and their interest in the improvement of all the 
schools of the state. In the years following, the 
normal schools, in this as in other states, became 
the leaders in elementary education, and were de- 



84 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

voted to the single purpose of training teacliers 
for the common schools of the state. 

Accordingly, and, as it seems, naturally, in the 
reorganization of the university under its present 
charter (1868), this section, and all expressed 
provision for a department of pedagogy was 
omitted. The latitude given the regents was in 
the clause (Sec. 2) "There shall be established in 
the university of Alinnesota five or more depart- 
ments," &c. 

At that time the sentiment prevailed that special 
training was only required for elementary teach- 
ers. From time immemorial it was assumed that 
ability to instruct was an essential accompani- 
ment of university education. The very name of 
the degrees conferred — "doctor" and "master" 
— signified this. Learning and culture were all 
that the university could furnish. If, with these, 
one could not teach, it must be because of some 
native defect which could not be remedied. This, 
at that time, was the prevailing attitude of uni- 
versities and colleges. Indeed, so strong was this 
conviction, that the normal school movement in 
the interest of elementary education was gener- 
ally depreciated ; its defects, which were many in 
its experimental stage, were magnified, and its 
ideals not recognized. It seemed as if the only 
college men who stood up for them were those 



IN MINNESOTA 85 

who were elected to positions as principals and in- 
structors in the normal schools. 

But that was a generation ago. In the mean 
time America has been under the intellectual 
influence and direction of Germany, from whom 
she learned her first lessons in the philosophy of 
education as applied to elementary schools. 

Our teachers have learned in the universities 
of Germany that education is a process subject to 
physical and mental laws, that cause and efifect 
rule as absolutely in the domain of education as 
in that of mechanics, though on a plane immeas- 
urably higher, and that conscious and intelligent 
skill is not to be limited to the care of children. 
They saw the technical and classical schools of 
Germany taught by university men trained to their 
work professionally, and with results that put 
our own to shame. Gradually, the sentiment 
strengthened in America that teaching is a p^^o- 
fession, and that the principles of pedagogy are 
as applicable to our schools of secondary educa- 
tion as to our primary. This movement was felt 
in our own university. As early as 1873, Presi- 
dent Folwell, in his report to the regents said, "I 
am of the opinion that after some years it will be 
desirable to open in the university, as the proper 
place, a normal department for training teachers 
of higher schools.'' 



86 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The first response to this advancing sentiment 
appears in 1885, when Harry P. Judson, Pro- 
fessor of History, was appointed to give a special 
course of lectures on teaching. In 1893, by un- 
animous vote of the regents, the chair of pedago- 
gy was established, and to its duties D. L. Kiehle 
was appointed. 

That the decision to establish this department 
was timely and wise is evident from these facts : 
that the legislature in support of secondary or 
high schools has required that all graduates of 
the university who were to be recognized as qual- 
ified teachers in high schools must have pursued 
the prescribed courses of pedagogy ; that the 
classes of this department, according to its last 
report (1902), had 102 members, and that of the 
graduating class, 40 per cent of the whole num- 
ber, and 60 per cent of the ladies held the Uni- 
versity Teacher's Certificate. 

But to establish by resolution an institution or 
department, contrary to traditional usage and 
sentiment, is but the beginning of a long struggle 
against pre-conceptions, and a long experimenta- 
tion in a practical adaptation of methods and 
principles to existing conditions. It was doubted 
even by some members of the board whether the 
department merited a place in the curriculum of 
the university. The head of the department 



IN MINNESOTA 87 

found it necessary to justify the judgment of 
the board that estabHshed it, which he did in a 
special report to the board. In this report are 
found the following propositions : 

"The historic university is not a part of, nor tlie 
fruitage of a system of popular education. It has pro- 
duced the men who have led in popular reforms, but as 
an institution it has been conservative and aristocratic. 
It has been the patron of scholarship, but not of the 
people." 

"The history of the State University has been one 
of readjustment between itself and the people who sup- 
port it. In other words, its history has been one of 
transition from its ancient aristocratic spirit to the 
democratic of modern times.'' 

"But so far it has responded to the demands of 
classes representing financial and industrial interests. 
There remains to be reckoned with an interest of the 
people of comparatively greater importance; an interest 
of the the people not as craftsmen, nor as doctors and 
lawyers, but as citizens and parents, whose supreme 
concern is to give every child of the nation the best 
preparation for complete living that the science and the 
wisdom of the age affords." 

"The greatest honors have come to the men in our 
greatest universities, and those of greatest learning, who 
have contributed most to the problems of childhood, and 
how to educate it. In the universities the great names 
in philosophy, that are most familiar to our ears, are 
those who are contributing to the philosophy and edu- 
cation of childhood." 

"To this point there has developed a profession of 



88 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

teaching and a philosophy of education represented 
by the normal schools, and receiving support from in- 
dividual scholars in universities. But the university as 
an institution, until recently, has had no part in the 
movement. On the contrary there has grown up the 
feeling that university sentiment has been indifferent, 
if not disposed even to belittle it." 

"Since that time — 1879, when the department was 
established in the University of Michigan — every state 
university in the United States has recognized this pop- 
ular demand, and has made provision for the department 
of pedagogy. The University of Leland Stanford, Junior, 
is best known by what it offers to teachers. In the Uni- 
versity of Chicago the department of philosophy, under 
the leadership of Dr. Dewey, is most active, and its 
head most widely known through his pedagogical serv- 
ices. The president of Clark University, Dr. G. Stanley 
Hall, is best known, and that most honorably, in a 
world-wide reputation, as a student of childhood, and 
the university is well known through the pedagogical 
department. Then too, old Harvard and Columbia have 
responded with well equipped schools of pedagogy, and 
President Eliot and President Nicholas Murray Butler 
are prominently identified with the cause of popular 
education." 

"Pedagogy ranks as the highest form of biological 
science. Large and costly provision has been made for 
the study of the structure of plants, and the laws of their 
growth. Corresponding provision has been made for the 
utilization of this science in the culture of plants useful 
to man, in the department of horticulture and agricul- 
ture. Provision has also been made for the application 
of this science in the department of animal industry, by 



IN MINNESOTA 89 

educated and skilled men in raising sheep, and hogs and 
cattle, all of greatest value to mankind. But pedagogy 
rises to the highest plane of biological inquiry, and has 
for its subject, not a plant, nor a bug nor a frog, but a 
'little child.' " 

"And it is not to be overlooked, that as civilization 
rises to higher conceptions of what life is, and what is 
worth living for, it turns more and more from the 
study of crops and cattle to the study and care of its 
children. For this reason, this subject of the education 
of children is the supreme study of interest to society." 
"As a co-educational institution in which women are 
furnishing a large part of the patronage, and taking the 
most of the academic honors, this is the only profes- 
sional study in which they are most interested, and in 
which their claims should be considered. As women, 
the study of childhood and its education is their study ; 
but as a calling, teaching is the only one that is pecul- 
iarly appropriate to them. Now, every professional pro- 
vision thus far made — law, medicine, dentistry, pharm- 
acy, etc. — is for men. That a few women enter them 
only proves that these callings are essentially masculine. 
And now, does the University graduating this large 
body of women propose to leave them at the threshold 
without offering them any means of professional prep- 
aration for the calling which they desire to enter? The 
effect of this policy has been to emphasize the industrial 
professions, to encourage our youth to enter them, and 
to engage in teaching only as make-shift for support 
while preparing for some more permanent calling." 

And so the department was not abolished. 
There remained — and still remains — the ques- 



90 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

tion whether the department should be ex- 
panded to meet the pedagogical demands of sec- 
ondary education ; whether the pedagogical as- 
pects of the subjects taught in the secondary 
schools, and continued in the university shall be 
recognized by the several departments, and pro- 
vision be made for the systematic training of 
teachers in the same. The pressing demands of 
the educational public is an assurance that this 
youngest of departments will soon be given the 
place its importance merits. 

That the development of this department has 
been slow and inadecjuate, is due to traditional 
conditions, and to the hindrances of opposing 
interests which accompany all new movements, 
and must alwavs be counted. 



CHAPTER IV. 
Secondary Education. 

In t-aiiy education, all emphasis was placed on 
the two extremes, the common schools for the 
people at large, and the college or university for 
the higher classes ; and so there was an impass- 
able gap between the two. The traditional feed- 
er to the college of the eastern states was the 
academy and the private school. In the west 
these intermediate schools were generally want- 
ing. On the other hand, our common schools 
had no intermediate school to which they could 
promote, and especially none in which to pre- 
pare for the university. 

And hence the history of high schools must 
be studied from the two directions, the demands 
of the common schools, that their more ambi- 
tious and capable students be given a better pre- 
paration for business and industrial life ; and 
also, of the university for a proper preparation 
of its entering classes. 

As was reasonable, the representatives of these 
two interests co-operated in establishing, as a 
third subdivision of our school svstem, the state 



92 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

high school, which is unique in its tv/ofold re- 
lation, — as (i) the academy of the university, 
and (2) the college of the people. The oppo- 
sition that attaches to all progressive movements, 
at the first declaimed against taxing the public 
for more than rudimentary education, while 
these same objectors were sending their sons to 
a state-supported university. However, the prin- 
ciple of an entire system of public education 
prevailed, and development began. 

In 1853 Superintendent E. D. Neill se- 
cured the enactment of a law providing that, 
"The trustees of any two or more districts may, 
by a concurrent vote, agree to establish a gram- 
mar school for the older and more advanced 
children of such district." The word "gram- 
mar" was used in its traditional sense to include 
the classical and other languages. 

In i860 the legislature authorized the City of 
St. Anthony to establish "two grammar schools," 
and "a central high school, where instruction in 
the higher English branches shall be given." 
This law, amended the following year to include 
the teaching of the languages, was the beginning 
of our high school movement. 

But the period of the positive advance of our 
high schools, both in number and in scholarship, 
dates from the time when thev came under the 



IN MINNESOTA 93 

inspiring and moulding influence of the univer- 
sity and the state. In 1869 President Fohvell, 
in his first report to the regents, said ; "Our sys- 
tem of pubHc instruction will not be an organized 
whole until the 'Secondary schools' are graded, 
not merely with reference to the primary schools 
below, but to the university above." In 1872 
State Superintendent H. B. Wilson appointed a 
special committee, consisting of David Burt of 
Winona, O. V. Tousley of Minneapolis, and O. 
Whitman of Red Wing, "to suggest some plan 
for securing a course of study in our high 
schools which shall be preparatory to our state 
university." The report of this committee is 
important in that it represents the twofold rela- 
tion of high schools, and undertakes an adjust- 
ment. 

I quote in part. "We recognize the fact that 
our high schools have a specific w^ork in our 
graded system ; that they are designed for those 
who have passed through the lower schools in 
the grades and may never be able to go beyond 
the high school. We regard it as necessary that 
these schools should have a course of study for 
such that will qualify them as far as possible for 
the spheres of hfe which they may enter on leav- 
ing the high school. Our acquiesence is hearty 
in what is intended by the assertion that they 



94 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

are 'the people's colleges' for the education of 
the masses of our youth, who will enter no high- 
er institution of learning. We believe that they 
should have a course of study sufficiently broad 
and versatile to accomplish this purpose. Yet 
while this is done the question arises, Can there 
not be some point of articulation between these 
schools and our higher institutions of learning? 
Can they not also prepare for higher courses of 
classical and scientific study those who may wish 
to enter our university, having an optional 
course of study for any one who may desire it? 
Can not this be done in many of our high schools, 
and ultimately, perhaps, in all of them without 
interfering with their appropriate work as re- 
lated to the lower schools in our graded system ?" 
In August of the same year President Fol- 
well expressed the disposition of the regents 
through its committee to the convention of city 
and county superintendents as follows , "The 
business of this committee is formally to invite 
this body to join the board in aif endeavor to 
bring about a vital, organic connection between 
the university and the high schools." 

State High Schools. 

In August, 1877, the State Teachers' Associa- 
tion, held at Mankato, adopted the following: 



IN MINNESOTA 95 

"Resolved, That this association earnestly hope 
and recommend that the boards of education in 
our cities and larger villages will, at the earliest 
moment, arrange courses of study suited to pre- 
pare students for admission to the university, 
and whenever possible, to admit students to these 
courses on liberal terms. 

"Resolved, That the legislature is requested 
to make suitable appropriation for paying the 
tuition of country students in the high schools 
of the state, so that free education from ABC 
to the master of arts may be the birthright of 
ever}' child of the state. 

"Resolved, That there be a committee to bring 
this subject to the attention of the Governor and 
the legislature in such manner as mav seem to 
them best." 

The next legislature (1878) passed the first 
state high school law embodying these features ; 
( I ) A State High School Board consisting of 
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
the President of the University, and a third 
member to be appointed by the governor. 

(2) The sum of $400 was apportioned to each 
graded school which, (a) admitted properly 
prepared students free of tuition; (b) gave in- 
struction fitting for the sub-freshman class; (c) 



96 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

shovild agree to the inspection of its classes by 
the high school board. 

Mr. Charles S. Bryant was appointed as a 
member of the board, and acted as its inspector 
with an earnest and intelligent enthusiasm. To 
the legislature of 1879 State Superintendent 
Burt reported 33 schools in which Latin was 
taught to 628 pupils, and in six of these schools 
Greek was taught to 46. 

The appropriation for this encouragement of 
higher education was $8000, but by an oversight 
it was not made annual. Hence, after one year 
its operation was suspended. 

In 1881 the law was re-enacted with several 
amendments, chiefly the following : 

(i) The Governor, ex-officio, was made the 
third member of the board. (In 1901 the third 
member was made appointive.) 

(2) High schools shall provide "orderly cours- 
es of study embracing all the branches prescribed 
as a pre-requisite for admission to the collegiate 
department of the University of Minnesota." 

(3) The board may appoint "competent per- 
sons to visit and inspect any schools, and to 
make report thereon." 

(4) "The board shall have power to establish 
suitable rules and regulations relating to ex- 
aminations, reports, acceptance of schools, cours- 



IN MINNESOTA 97 

es of study, and other proceedings under this 
act." 

(5) The sum of $20,000 was appropriated 
annually for the purposes of this act. 

The operation of this new law began with 
the administration of D. L. Kiehle as state su- 
perintendent of public instruction, and ex-ofificio 
member of the high school board. 

In the larger interests of the high schools, 
completing the education of many for the busi- 
ness life, as well as fitting others for the higher 
education of the university, the superintendent 
of public instruction recommended that the 
board enlarge and emphasize the policy hitherto 
adopted, and, besides looking immediately and 
chiefly to the interests of the university in the 
supervision of high schools, that the board adopt 
a more general plan of building up these high 
schools in proportions answering to their twofold 
relations ; and this by means of more definite 
rules, requiring thoroughly prepared teachers, 
a well-balanced course of study, a classification 
of the schools according to their advancement, 
a systematic written examination of classes by 
the board, and issuing the certificates of the 
board to students passing, which certificates 
should be accepted in lieu of entrance examin- 
ations to the university. This plan was approved 



98 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and adopted by the board, and at once set in 
operation. The president of the university took 
charge of the examinations, and the Superintend- 
ent of PubUc Instruction, as secretary, looked 
after the inspection and general business of the 
board. 

The advantages of the plan adopted were 
these : ( i ) The university related itself broadly 
as the promoter of education of every grade. In- 
stead of being merely the recipient of the choic- 
est fruits of secondary education, and of bene- 
fiting the state through its inspiring example, 
it made itself the servant of the entire system. 

(2) The classification of the schools— third, 
second, first — without diminishing their support, 
gave aid to the weak, and operated as a stim- 
ulus to higher rank. (3) The examination and 
certificating of students in the several branches 
passed, gave them rank at the university, and 
likewise, by decision of other institutions, at the 
colleges and normal schools of the state. Young 
students in all parts of the state were officially 
accredited with what they accomplished. 

In 1893 the legislature authorized the appoint- 
ment of an inspector of State high schools at a 
reasonable compensation. Under this act George 
B. Alton was appointed inspector. Under his 
diligent and wise administration to the present 



IN MINNESOTA 99 

time, the high schools have attained to a degree 
of efficiency in number and scholarship that 
makes them the pride of the state. 

The number of hjgh schools has increased 
from 39 in 1881, to 141 in 1902. The annual 
appropriation for their support has increased 
from $20,000 in 1881, to $217,000 in 1903; and 
for the support of the individual schools, from 
$400 in 1881 to $1000 in 1902, and to $1600 in 
1903, with the provision that in case the amoimt 
appropriated will not suffice, the appropriation 
shall be apportioned pro rata. 

A detailed enumeration of the features of prog- 
ress in our high schools is impossible within 
these limitations. In number, in buildings, in 
equipment, in apparatus and libraries, and in 
the liberal provision made for instruction, these 
schools have kept abreast of the age, and now 
fill completely the gap that once existed between 
the common schools and the university. 

Graded Schools. 

The supervising authority of the state high 
school board has been farther extended to in- 
clude the graded schools, numbering 119, which 
have been already reported as the advanced com- 
mon schools articulating with the high schools. 
They receive state aid to the amount of $550 each, 



loo HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and are under the inspection of A. W. Ran- 
kin, an appointee of the board, who has served 
in that relation to the present time. 

Semi-Graded and Riral Schools. 

The marked improvement of the high schools 
and the graded schools under the influence of the 
aid given by the state in money and stricter super- 
vision determined the legislature to offer the en- 
couragement of financial aid under strict condi- 
tions to semi-graded and rural schools. These 
conditions were that, for semi-graded schools, 
the district should be provided with suitable 
buildings, libraries and apparatus, and that a 
school of eight months should be maintained 
each year. Organized in at least two departments 
with a suitable course of study, and taught by 
competent teachers, one of whom shall hold a 
state certificate of the first grade, or its equivalent. 
These schools receive state aid to the amount 
of $225 each. 

Rural schools that meet the above conditions 
with the exception that they are not required 
to maintain two departments, shall receive one 
hundred twenty-five dollars. These schools re- 
main under the supervision of the county super- 
intendents. 

This survey completes what is recognized as 



IN MINNESOTA loi 

our public school system. It is complete in of- 
fering every child of the commonwealth a free 
education, and progressive from the primary 
grade to the university. Every grade points 
upward toward the university ; and to the uni- 
versity itself as the aid and support of all below. 



CHAPTER VL 
Schools for Defectives and the Homeless. 

In its school system the state educates itself. 
These in the schools will soon be the citizens of 
the state, assuming all its duties and responsibil- 
ities. But besides these, the state has another 
large class of its children who, by reason of 
physical defects and the lack of proper moral 
environment in family and social life, are be- 
yond the reach of the educating influences of 
the public schools, and may never assume the 
responsibilities of citizenship. These are the 
deaf, the blind, the homeless waifs, the imbecile, 
and the morally depraved. As the state, in be- 
nevolent spirit, builds hospitals for the care of 
the sick, who would otherwise die of neglect, 
in the same spirit the state undertakes to educate 
these defectives in special institutions, and by 
instruction especiallv adapted to their condition. 

This class of schools can be only outlined, but 
must not be overlooked in an estimate of the 
comprehensiveness of the plan of the state in the 
care of all its children. 



EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA 103 

I. Schools for Defectives. 

The children who are defective in sight, hear- 
ing or intelHgence, and who thereby cannot be 
taught in the common schools, are provided for 
by the state in three separate institutions locat- 
ed in the city of Faribault. In these they are 
provided with homes and are given an education 
adapted to their condition. 

The legislature of 1863 appointed a commis- 
sion consisting of George F. Batchelder, Rod- 
ney A. Alott and David H. Frost and author- 
ized them to provide for the relief and instruc- 
tion of the indigent blind and deaf of the state. 

In September following a school was open.ed 
in a hired building under R. H. Kinney, Princi- 
pal, with one matron, one teacher and a class of 
five, soon increased to eight, deaf children, three 
of whom were feeble-minded. 

Ill 1865, the limiting term "indigent" was re- 
moved from the statute, and by the same legis- 
lature, provision was made for a permanent 
board of five directors, adding the governor and 
state superintendent of public instruction as ex- 
ofificio members of the original number. 

The history of this institution is a record of 
the cordial interest the citizens of Faribault have 
taken in the care and the beneficent purposes of 



104 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

these schools. Of the twenty-three different citi- 
zens who have served on the board, three have 
served notably the longest of all in the state. — T. 
B. Clements, twenty-five years ; Hudson Wilson 
thirty-three years; and R. A. Mott, thirty-eight 
years. 

In 1879, the legislature appointed a commis- 
sion of expert physicians to visit the state hos- 
pitals for the insane and select from them such 
idiotic and feeble-minded children as, in their 
opinion, were proper subjects for special care 
and instruction, and assign them to this board 
for care and training. i\s a result, twenty-two 
were selected and placed in a school that same 
fall with Dr. George H. Knight of Connecticut 
as Principal. 

In 1 88 1, the school was incorporated as a de- 
partment of the institution for defectives, and 
epileptics were added, to be cared for. Until that 
time the superintendency of all departments had 
been under Dr. J. L. Noyes ; but then they were 
.separated, Dr. Noyes retaining charge of the 
deaf, leaving Dr. J. Dow superintendent of the 
blind, and Dr. Knight superintendent of the 
feeble-minded. 

Until August, 1901, the three departments 
were administered under the original board, at 



IN MINNESOTA 105 

which time that of the feeble-minded was trans- 
ferred to the State Board of Control. 

The entire number received under the care of 
this department to the end of the scholastic year, 
June, 1902, is 1582. 

1. The school for the blind is free to all blind 
children in the state between the ages of eight 
and twenty-six years. Board, care and tuition 
are furnished without charge. The school is 
equipped with all the appliances of a modern 
school of this class. Special instruction is given 
in music, and in manual training and industrial 
work, such as sloyd, broom-making, hammock- 
weaving, bead-work, basket-work and sewing. 
The course of study embraces a period of seven 
years, beginning with the kindergarten and end- 
ing with the usual English studies required for 
entrance to the high school. 

2. The school for the deaf is free to all deaf 
children between eight and twenty-five years of 
age whose parents or guardians are citizens of 
the State. The school course is seven years, 
which by the vote of the directors may be ex- 
tended three years. About one-third of the time 
is devoted to industrial training in trades, such 
as boot and shoe making for boys, with print- 
ing, carpentry, and cabinet making; and for 
girls, dressmaking, plain sewing and cooking. 



io6 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Of the total enrollment (947) to June, 1902, 
551 were males and 396 were females. 

Upon completion of the course of this school, 
examinations are given for entrance to Gallaudet 
College, to which twenty-seven have been ad- 
mitted, giving ^Minnesota second place — Iowa 
being first — of the number sent to college as 
compared with the total deaf population of the 
state. 

Of the Minnesota students who have attended 
college, 10 have become teachers; i, a super- 
visor; I, a founder and superintendent of a 
school for the deaf; i, a matron of a school; i, 
an artist; i, an architect; i, an editor; 3. gov- 
ernment clerks ; and i , a banker. 

Of those who have graduated from the school, 
26 are, or have been, teachers, and others are 
found in various callings, as book-keepers, clerks, 
artists, merchants, and similar occupations. All 
of which shows that out of the indigent and de- 
pendent, the state has educated self-supporting 
and useful citizens. 

3. For the feeble-minded a main building 
has been provided at a cost of $290,000. It is 
divided into a north wing for girls, and a south 
wing for boys, leaving the middle part for ad- 
ministrative rooms, hospital, assembly hall, in- 
dustrial rooms and the culinary department. 



IN MINNESOTA 107 

The children are grouped into "famihes" for 
home Hfe, each group being under the care of an 
attendant during the hours when not in school. 
This grouping is arranged both according to age 
and congeniality. In the school rooms the group- 
ings are arranged according to comparative men- 
tal ability. 

During the year 1901-1902, the enrollment 
was, 474 males, and 397 females. Of this number 
325 were in the school department. A large per- 
centage promise to become self-supporting. 

4. The Minnesota State Training School for 
Boys and Girls was given its present name — 
changed from State Reform School — to avoid 
the appearance of separating these youth from 
society, and of identifying them with the crim- 
inal classes. 

The school, formerly located at St. Paul, is 
now located at Red Wing on a tract of 450 acres 
of land. It is provided with an administrative 
building and separate cottages for boys and girls. 
Its purpose is to counteract the results of idle- 
ness and evil companionship by moral and intel- 
lectual instruction, and by training to habits of 
industry through useful and remunerative occu- 
pations. The school is organized on what is 
known as the "open family plan." It is divided 
into families of from fiftv to seventv-five, accord- 



io8 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ing to ages, each family being in charge of a 
family manager, a teacher and a housekeeper. 

The cost of maintaining the scliool. for the 
year ending July 31, 1902, was $126,439. of 
which a part was defrayed by the industrial work. 
The cost of buildings has been $335,504. 

School for Dependent and Neglected 
Children. 

This school, known as the State Public School, 
was established in 1885. It provides a temporary 
home and school for the dependent and neglected 
children of the State. 

In the school all l)odily wants are cared for, 
and instruction is given in morals and the com- 
mon school branches. The average time of re- 
tention being ten months, no systematic training 
in trades is undertaken ; but all are well occupied 
in the various industries and services of this 
State home. 

Through an organized State agency children 
are provided with homes in families, which are 
regularly visited to learn of the condition and 
care that is given the children. 

Up to Jan. I, 1903, there had been received 
from 76 of the 82 counties, 2474 children — 15 19 
boys and 955 girls. Of this number all but 257, 



IN MINNESOTA 109 

then in the school, had been placed in family 
homes. Of those so placed 1030 still remained 
under the supervision of the school. Inform- 
ation gained by visitation showed that 84 per 
cent had developed into young men and women 
of good character. The cost of the entire prop- 
erty has been $226,910. 

Co^^CLusION. 

Taking a summary and general view of what 
Minnesota has done and is doing for the educa- 
tion of its children, we find that the aggregate 
expenditure and present valuation, in round 
numbers, is as follows : 

I. Buildings and Permanent Improvements. 

1. By the State $ 3,500,000. 

2. By Special and Independent 

Districts 12,000,000. 

3. By Common School Districts. . 4,000,000. 

Total $19,500,000. 

II. For Annual Support. 

1. By the General Government — 
Revenue from land grants, and 

money, $ 590,000. 

2. By the State 1,400,000. 

3. By School Districts 3,000,000. 

Total $4,990,000. 



no HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

These amounts are necessarily approximate ; 
yet they are sufficiently accurate to answer tlte 
purpose of a general estimate of the material ex- 
pression of the worthiest impulses and principles 
of our people in the care of those who are the 
future hope and honor of the State. 

Another, and higher view than merely the 
financial one, is the successful application of the 
state's intelligence to the development of its sys- 
tem to comprehend every stage and aspect of its 
civic and industrial life. In the geography of 
our state, we see that every stream, rivulet and 
spring finds its way to the great ocean, and so 
makes itself a contributing part of the great sys- 
tem of waters ; likewise, so complete is our sys- 
tem of education, that every vocation of life, 
every gradation and degree of culture, — artisan 
and statesman ; the care of the plant and the pro- 
tection of human life ; the child at his alphabet 
and the mature student of the philosophy of life ; 
the brilliant genius and the unfortunate imbecile ; 
the child of the poorest and the son of the rich- 
est , — all are comprehended in the provisions of 
our system of education, so far perfected, that 
it stands at the forefront of all that human 
wisdom has devised for the improvement of the 
race and the perpetuation of human institutions. 

And, now, in wh?t we have accomplished, we 



IN MINNESOTA iii 

have a guarantee for the future, that the prob- 
lems still unsolved, that the defects still unrem- 
edied, will find their solution, and that complete- 
ness will ultimately crown our history with the 
honors of intelligence and philanthropy. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Report of the State Constitutional Convention. 

General Statutes of Minnesota. 

United States Land Laws: Public Domain. 

Reports of the State Department of Public In- 
struction. 

Reports of the Regents of the University. 

Address of John S. Pillsbury, before the Alumni 
of the University, June i, 1893. 

History of Education in Minnesota. Circular 
of Information, No. 2, 1902, U. S. Bureau 
of Education. 

History of Minnesota, Edward D. Neill, D. D. 



TABLES 



TABLE I 

Showing the Complete List of Educational Officers of the 
State and oi State Institutions. 

I Superintendents of Public Instruction. 

Term Begun Ended 

Edward D. Neill March, 1851 1853 

E. W. Merrill August, 1853 1854 

M. C. Baker March, 1854 Q 1855 

W.S.Hall 18551?) (.?) 

Edward D. Neill April, i860 May, 1861 

B. F. Crary April, 1861 January, 1862 

D. Blakeley (i) January, 1862 January, 1864 

H. C. Rogers (i) January, 1864 January, 1867 

Mark H. Dunnell April 2, 1867 August 1, 1870 

Horace B. Wilson .August i, 1870 April 5, 1875 

David Burt .April 5, 1875 September i, 1881 

David L. Kiehle September i, 1881 September i, 1893 

Wm. W. Fendergast September i, 1893 January i, 1899 

John H. Lewis January i, 1899 "January i, 1901 

John W. Olsen January i, 1901 

(i) Ex officio, as Secretary of State. 

n Presidents of the University of Minnesota. 

Edward D. Neill (i) March, 1858 May, 1861 

W. W. Washburn (2) September, 1867 June, 1869 

Wm.W. Folwell September, 1869 May, 1884 (3) 

Cvrus Northrup September, 1884 

(i) Chancellor. (2) Principal. (3) Resigned May, 1883 

HI Presidents of the State Normal Schools. 

1 Winona. 

John Ogden September, i860 September, 1861 

Wm. F. Phelps November, 1864 June, 1876 

Chas. .\. Morey September, 1876 June, 1879 

Irwin Shepard September, 1879 June, 1898 

J. F. Millspaugh September, 1898 

2 Mankato. 

Geo. M. Gage September, 1868 lune, 1872 

Julia , A. Stearns (i) September, 1872 June, 1873 

D. C. John September, 1873 June, 1880 

Edward Searing September, 1880 October, 1892 

Chas. H. Cooper January, 1899 

(i) Acting. 



ii6 



HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



TABLE I — Continued 



Ira Moore 

David L. Kiehle 

lerome Allen 

Thos. J. Gray 

Joseph Carhart 

Geo. F. Kleeberger 

Waite A. Shoemaker September, 1902 



3 St. Cloud. 

September, 1869 
September, 1875 
September, 1881 
September, 1884 
September, 18 
September, 18 



L. C. Lord 
Frank A. Weld 



E. W. Bohannon 



4 Moorhead 

August, 1888 
September, 1898 

5 Duluth 
September, 1901 



June, 1875 
]une, 1881 
June, 1884 
lune, 1890 
June, 1895 
June, 1902 



June, 1898 



TABLE II 

Showing the Amounts and Income of the Permanent 

School Funds and the School Enrollment 

for Every Fifth Year. 





University 




Permanent 




Enroll- 




Perm. Fund 


Income 


School Fund 


Income 


ment 


1862 


% 


$ 


% 242,531 


Si2,3o8 


32,560 


1867 


840 


196 


1,587,210 


91,906 


68,870 


1872 


145,121 


17,093 


2,739,089 


163,555 


120,352 


1877 


353,989 


37,843 


3,403,219 


200,982 


152,023 


1882 


625,124 


29,813 


5,372,326 


267,082 


189,239 


1887 


837,361 


35,296 


8,258,096 


352,822 


245,481 


1892 


1,000,445 


38,634 


10,132,867 


515,333 


300,333 


1897 


1,202,893 


49,266 


11,823,145 


551,941 


371,889 


1902 


1.334,035 


53,698 


14,316,389 


592,554 


414,671 



IN MINNESOTA 117 



TABLE III 

Showing tlie Total Cost of Buildings and Permanent Im- 
provements for Educational Institutions, 
including 1901-1902 

State University, from 1867 51,450,642 

State Normal Schools, from 1H66 751,000 

Schools for Defectives, from 1866 883,250 

State Training School, from 1867 335,504 

State Pu blic School , from 18S6 219,774 

Total, - 53,640,170 



TABLE IV 

Showing Annual Disbursements for the Current Ex- 
penses of Educational Institutions for 
Every Fifth Year 

University go^^J^ Defectives Reform p„^'^^^j^_ 

1861 < S 1,318 $ $ $ 

1867 11,508 ('69) 5,000 

1872 21,000 26,212 20,000 12,000 

1877 39,000 30,000 28,000 27,000 

1882 43,881 37>023 45.074 32,000 

1887 84,100 50,000 74,874 35,000 13,026 

1S92 184,624 86,520 111,017 56,723 24,258 

1897 283,716 122,604 166,550 58,186 34,88g 

1902 415,104 134,007 187,388 5**.7i2 38,053 



ii8 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

TABLE V 

Showing the Enrollments and Graduations of the Normal 

Schools at Winona, Mankato, St. Cloud and 

Moorhead from the beginning. 





Enroll 


nient 






Enroll 


ment 






Male 


Fem. 


Tot. Grad 




Male 


Fem. 


Tot. Grad 


1861 


29a 


30 




1883 


228 


466 


63 


1863 








1884 


197 


475 


94 


1864 


4 


28 




1885 


.321 


632 


75 


1865 


9 


41 




1886 


354 


690 


115 


1866 


13 


67 


14 


1887 


301 


617 


140 


1867 


13 


74 


11 


1888 


240 


579 


122 


1868 


22 


100 


i6 


l8Sg 


213d 


558 


116 


1869 


76 b 


245 


.39 


1890 


244 


525 


129 


1870 


115c 


337 


31 


1S91 


242 


731 


125 


1871 


148 


345 


71 


1892 


245 


785 


231 


1872 


130 


320 


64 


1893 


246 


771 


219 


1873 


142 


429 


42 


1S94 


274 


809 


237 


1874 


176 


422 


62 


1S95 


301 


931 


257 


1875 


188 


SCO 


60 


1896 


328 


1150 


291 


1876 


140 


532 


73 


1897 


335 


1039 


345 


1877 


167 


344 


77 


1898 


355 


1385 


279 


1878 


14S 


287 


57 


1899 


414 


1640 


.367 


1879 


127 


287 


83 


1900 


325 


1121 


379 


1880 


138 


264 


85 


1901 


266 


1117 


465 


I88I 


166 


307 


59 


1902 


255 


1093 


308 


1882 


220 


465 


61 










F"irst 


enrollments: 


a. Winona; b. 


Mankal 


;o; c. SI 


:. Cloud: 


; d. Moor 




head. 















IN MINNESOTA 



119 



TABLE VI 

Showing Enrollment and Graduations in the several De- 
partments of the University. 



1869 108 

1870 

1871 

1872 

1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 

1877 



1879 
1880 



1890 



1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 



1900 
1901 
1902 



Coll., Sci., Lit. and 

Arts 
M. F. Tot. G. M 

726 . . 



Professional 

Colls. 
, F. Tot. C 



Industrial School of 



165 
202 
202 
203 
186 
193 
209 



234 136 
259 133 
209 97 



I88I 


182 


88 


1882 


159 


75 


1883 


122 


76 


1884 


131 


75 


1885 


124 


83 



205 88 

124 97 

200 134 

236 151 

259 221 

264 255 

267 270 

251 380 

203 476 

238 484 

311 508 

332 577 

350 590 

361 5-t6 

359 582 



146 
212 
225 

265 
278 
287 
235 
264 
202 
370 
382 
306 
270 
234 
198 
206 

2I7f 

293 
221 

334 
387 



Colls. 
M. G. 



Agr. 
F. 



14 
10 
47h 
78 
104 



18 

85 

2a 82 

13 2 92 

3 113 

25 2 71 

34 152 

_ _ 27 174 9 183 24b 174 
48og 45 254 II 264 63 181 
519 45 357 17 374 79 i93 
537 54 449 21 470 98 254 10 loi 
631 84 516 32 548 152 204 14 114 
679 80 569 25 594 156c 255 II 144 
722 108 657 31 688 170 247 18 204 
819 117 740 27 767 213 306 16 269 
909 129 717 30 747 164 320 27 335 
940 139 832 26 858 158 339 27 276 
907 152 887 35 822 ifas 387 18 257 
_.. _ 941 141 1044 40 1084 23id434 32 328 
418 675 1093 157 959 37 99& 240 521 27 338 
333 846 1179 208 1016 38 1054 249 630 19 328 122 70 
First Graduations, a. Medicine; b. Homeopathic Med., Dentistry, 
Law; c. Pharmacy; d. Pharmaceutical Chem. 

e. including 3d and 4th yr. prep, classes, f. 4th yr. prep, class dis- 
continued, g. 3d yr. prep, class discontinued, h. School of Agr. 
opened, i. first <;raduation of ladies. 



G. 



19 
25 
28 
28 
33 23 
56 341 

79 45 

80 63 



HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



s < 

3 C 
W 



O CO 









3 e 
•1^ Z 



CCOi^OCC i--'0 o o>^ o 
"O ro in I-. M ro r^> N ■-' i-h 



1 O O O '^ O 



NOO O fO O 1 



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PnUl-lSj-ihkJUl-l 



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o n. '-' m n! rt iJ 
r: o— "" ■- •- — 



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to biO 

U 3 



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3 3 '5. <!* rt 5. O. 



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o o o_ 
CJUUC 



EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA 
PART II 



EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA 



IN TWO PARTS 



PART II 



A Systematic Study and 

Arrangement of the School Laws 

AND Sources of School Support 

IN Minnesota 



BY 



DAVID L. KIEHLE, LL. D. 

EX-STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. 

LATE PROFESSOR OF PEDAGOGY IN THE 

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 




MINNEAPOLIS 

THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 
1903 



Copyright by 

The H. W. Wilson Company 

1903 



PREFACE. 

This summary of the school laws of Minnesota 
i.> pitpared for teachers and others who are stu- 
dents of education. The systematic arrangement 
wii] make it possible to see some imity in the re- 
lations of parts to each other, and to form some 
judgment regarding the completeness of our sys- 
tem for its purpose. In this respect it becomes a 
study in education, — of principles, and more than 
? mere handbook. 

It includes all the laws that are required for 
the general guidance of teachers and school offi- 
cers, om-itting such minuti?e of details as are of 
minor interest, and needed only when the original 
statutes must be referred to as final authority. 

I have given all references to the sections of 
the school laws of 1901 prepared under the di- 
rection of the state superintendent of public in- 
struction, with such amendments, in footnotes, 
as are made by the legislature of 1903. 

When possible without sacrificing accuracy, I 
have abbreviated expressions required by forms 
of law, and so, I trust, have made the sense more 
intelligible in its abbreviated form to the general 
reader. 



6 PREFACE 

Since a knowledge of school law is of general 
interest and is required of teachers, this modest 
contribution is offered to the educational public 
in the hope that it will answer its intended pur- 
pose. D. L. K. 



SYNOPTIC INDEX. 

Chapter I. Principles and Facts. 

I. State Systems 15 

II. A Democratic System 16 

III. General Principles 18 

1. Authority near the people 18 

2. The state represents public sentiment 18 

(i) It requires uniformity; (2) it 
guarantees honesty and economy; (3) 
it protects individual rights; (4) it en- 
courages progress; (5) it supports in- 
stitutions. 

3. The state bases legislation upon social 

conditions 20 

(i) Rural society; (2) urban society. 

4. The General Government in education 23 

Chapter II. Territorial Units. 
District Boundaries. 

I. Rural Districts 25 

1. Organization and boundaries 25 

2. Petitions 25 

( I ) Description of territory; (2) pop- 
ulation and children; (3) districts 
affected; (4) signatures; (5) county 
commissioners; (6) consolidation. 

3. Transportation 28 

II. Independent Districts 29 

1. Territory . 2g 

2. Limitations 29 



8 SYNOPTIC INDEX 

3. Procedure in organization 30 

(i) Notices; (2) meeting; (3) election 
of board. 

4. Special districts 31 

5. Changes in boundaries 31 

(i) Petition; (2) notice; (3) decision re- 
corded; (4) rehearing. 

Chapter III. School Administration. 

A. Of Rural Schools 33 

I . Power of the Electors 33 

1. To appoint moderator and adjourn 33 

2. To elect a board 33 

3. To designate site 33 

4. To vote tax for schools 33 

5. To vote tax for building 33 

6. To decide indirectly the length okterm 34 

7. Voters 34 

(i) Residents; (2) freeholders; (3) wom- 
en. 

II. School Board: Election and Qualification 35 

1. Duties of the Board 36 

(i) Employ teachers; (2) provide for 
school; (3) sell and lease property; (4) 
issue bonds ; ( 5) contract for text books. 

2. Duties of the Clerk 37 

(i) Keep records; (2) post notices; (3) 
make report; (4) report tax levy; (5) 
draw orders; (6) receive pay. 

3. Duties of the Treasurer 38 

(i) Give bond; (2) receive money; (3) 
annual report. 

4. Duties of the Director 39 

I I I. Teachers 40 

I. Qualifications 40 



SYNOPTIC INDEX 9 

2. Contracts 41 

(i) Form; (2) wages; (3) orders. 

3. Term of school 42 

4. Duties 42 

( I ) Records ; ( 2 ) reports ; (3) temperance 
instruction. 

IV. Superintendence 44 

1. Election of Superintendent of county. . . 44 

2. Salary and expenses 44 

3. Duties 45 

(i) Conduct examinations; (2) may is- 
sue certificates; (3) semi-graded 
schools; (4) state rural schools; (5) state 
board examinations; (6) re-examina- 
tions and suspensions; (7) distribute 
blanks; (8) visit schools; (q) report en- 
rollments to county auditor; (10) re- 
port to state superintendent; (11) pen- 
alties; (12) transfer to successor. 
B. Independent Districts 51 

1. Duties of Electors 51 

( I) Choose directors; (2) vote for or 
against new school house; (3) may dis- 
solve organization; (4) may increase 
the board. 

2. Organization of the Board 53 

3. Powers and duties of the Board 54 

(i) Organize grades; (2) provide rooms, 
etc.; (3) erect school houses; (4) pro- 
vide fuel, furniture, etc.; (5) provide 
repairs, etc.; (6) employ teachers; (7) 
defray board expenses; (8) direct in- 
struction and discipline; (g) make 
rules for property; (10) make rules 
for officers; (11) levy tax; (12) furnish 
blanks; (13) execute deeds, etc.; (14) 
report tax levy to county auditor; (15) 
issue bonds; (16) report receipts, etc.; 
(17) elect superintendent; (18) fix com- 



lo SYNOPTIC INDEX 

pensation of clerk and treasurer; (ig) 
fill vacancies; (20) establish kinder- 
gartens. 

4. Duties of the Clerk 56 

(i) Keep records; (2) make reports; (3) 
give notices; (4) draw orders; (5) re- 
port to county superintendent. 

5. Duties of the Treasurer 57 

(i) Execute a bond; (2) receive and 
pay money; (3) make report; (4) trans- 
fer to successor. 

6. Superintendent of Schools 58 

(i) Election; (2) visits schools; (3) 
reports to state superintendent. 

C. Special Districts 58 

1. Organization 58 

2. Minneapolis and St. Paul charters 59 

3. Annual school meetings 62 

D. State High School Board 62 

1. The Board 62 

(I) Organization; (2) powers and duties 
— (a) make rules, (b) appoint high 
school inspector, (c) appoint graded 
school inspector, (d) keep record and 
report, (e) receive applications for aid. 

2. State High schools 63 

(i) Conditions of acceptance — (a) 
term of school, (b) free tuition, (c) 
course of study, (d) inspection, (c) ap- 
plications from state graded schools; 
(2) state aid. 

3. State Graded schools 65 

(i) Conditions of acceptance — (a) term 
of school, (b) departments, (c) equip- 
ment, (d) course of study, (e) applica- 
tions from semi-graded schools; (2) 
state aid. 



SYNOPTIC INDEX li 

4. Supervision 67 

(i) Of state high schools; (2) of state 
graded schools. 

E. State Normal Schools 67 

1. The Board of Directors 67 

(i) Organization — (a) appointment, (b) 
shall qualify, (c) elect president; (2) 
duties and authority — (a) supervision 
of schools, (b) prescribe course of 
study, visit, etc., (c) report to Govern- 
* or; (3) duties of treasurers— (a) give 

bonds, (b) receive and disburse money, 
(c) compensation. 

2. Normal Schools 70 

(i) Tuition; (2) diplomas; (3) presi- 
dent's report. 

F. University of Minnesota 71 

I. Board of Regents 72 

(i) Organization; (2) powers and dut- 
ies — (a) body corporate, (b) enact by- 
laws, (c) rules of admission, degrees, 
etc., (d) may accept gifts in trust, (e) 
hold annual meeting, (f) geological 
survey, (g) salt spring lands, (h) ex- 
perimental farm, (i) provide for crip- 
ples, (j) report to Governor; (3) duties 
of the secretary ; (4) duties of the treas- 
urer. 

Chapter IV. Certificates and Examinations. 

1. Classes and validity of certificates 76 

(i) State certificates — (a) state professional, (b) 
university teachers', (c) state first grade, (d) 
second grade; (2) diplomas as certificates — 
(a) of a college or university, (b) of a normal 
school. 

2. Examinations "]"] 

(i) For state professional certificates; (2) for 



12 SYNOPTIC INDEX 

state first and second grade;(3) local certifi- 
cates; (4) miscellaneous — (a) teachers may dis- 
miss school, (b) state superintendent may issue 
certificates, (c) expenses of conducting exami- 
nations, (d) suspension of certificates, (e) ap- 
peals. 

Chapter V. Support of Public Schools. 

1. General support of common schools 82 

(i) By the General Government; (2) support 
by state; (3) apportionment; (4) support by the 
district — (a) localone mill tax, (b) special taxes. 

2. Special state support 86 

(i) State high schools; (2) state graded schools; 
(3) state semi-graded schools; (4) rural schools; 
(5) teachers' institutes; (6) teachers' training 
schools; (7) district libraries. 

Chapter VI. Support of State Normal Schools. 

Chapter VII. Support of the State University. 

1. By the General Government 89 

(i) University land grant; (2) agricultural land 
grant; (3) experiment station; (4) supplement- 
ary agricultural appropriation; (5) salt spring 
lands. 

2. By the State gi 

(i) State tax; (2) special annual appropriations. 

3. University Tuition 92 

4. Special State Appropriations 92 

Chapter VIII. State Supervision. 

1. Appointment of Superintendent of Public In- 

struction 93 

2. Assistant 94 



SYNOPTIC INDEX 13 

3. Ex-officio member of boards 94 

4. Duties 94 

(i) Meet county superintendents; (2) distrib- 
ute blanks; (3) organize institutes and training 
schools; (4) hold examinations; (5) consider 
appeals; (6) issue jirofessional certificates; (7) 
make apportionment; (8) make requisition for 
schools; (9) make requisition for library aid; 
(10) keep records; (11) recommend text books 
in hygiene, etc. ; (12) neport receipts and dis- 
bursements; (13) sell dictionaries; (14) report 
to legislature. 

Chapter IX. Miscellaneous Laws. 

1. Reports of private schools 97 

2. Compulsory attendance 97 

3. Truant officer 98 

4. Tobacco 99 

5. Intoxicating liquors 100 

6. Child labor 100 

7. Holidays loi 

8. Transportation of pupils loi 

9. Women as electors loi 

10. Dictionaries loi 

11. School libraries 102 

12. Free text books 102 



CHAPTER I. 
Principles and Facts 

A rational understanding of school law re- 
quires that we keep in mind certain facts and 
principles that have conditioned the organiza- 
tion of our school system and the development 
of school laws. By the aid of these one may in- 
terpret law in the light of the principles that 
underlie our form of government, and may also 
estimate its value as fairly or unfairly representing 
the principles of the government. For this pur- 
pose we shall introduce the subject of school 
law in Minnesota by an examination of several 
of these important facts and principles. 

I. State Systems. Education in the United 
States is organized in state systems. The sov- 
ereign state reserves to itself the education of its 
youth. The traditions, ideals and culture 
that make for citizenship are jealously retained 
and controlled by the state. So positive is this 
sentiment that when, a few years ago, a bill was 
introduced in Congress (the Hoar Bill) propos- 
ing a large government appropriation annually 
for the support of common schools, and on the 
basis of illiteracy — the most needy receiving the 
largest appropriations — the southern states, 



i6 SCHOOL LAWS 

which would have received the largest amounts, 
and were in the greatest need, rejected it on the 
ground, that impliedly it compromised their sov- 
ereignty in education, and allowed the general 
government to interpose its authority in the man- 
agement of their schools. Systems of education 
are seldom national. There is no German sys- 
tem of education ; but a Prussian system and a 
Saxon system. There is no British system, but 
an English, Scotch, and Ontario system, — but 
no Canadian. 

The state, the church and the family are the 
educating authorities of our country. The relation 
of the general government to education as con- 
ducted by the states is in no sense authoritative. 
It is vitally interested, and exerts great influence 
upon education, but as we shall see, it does all 
indirectly by its encouragement and financial aid, 
and by the information which it disseminates 
among the people. 

II. A Democratic System. It is important 
that we keep in mind that ours is a government 
by the people. Under a monarchial government 
authoritative direction and power are central- 
ized in the crown. For good or for evil, this 
gives the monarch and his government entire 
control without regard to what the people know 
or desire. This centralization facilitates system 



OF MINNESOTA 17 

and discipline. The wisdom of the government 
may be put into immediate execution without 
the delay and compromises that the ignorance 
and divided interests of the people might inter- 
pose. But ours is a democratic system. What 
we have is what the people demand, and until 
the wisest can so convince the people that to- 
gether they rise to a higher plane of understand- 
ing, we cannot advance. In education, the peo- 
ple have conferred authority upon the state in 
their Constitution. Within the limitations of 
this Constitution the state exercises its jurisdic- 
tion. This authority is expressed in Section i, 
Article VIII of the Constitution in these words: 
"It shall be the duty of the legislature to estab- 
lish a general and uniform system of public 
schools." This delegation of authority is as com- 
prehensive as it is brief. In effect it confers 
upon the legislature complete authority to deter- 
mine what constitutes "a general and uniform 
system of public schools," and to enact all leg- 
islation necessary to effect that which is re- 
quired. In this, then, the state is made the source 
of authority by the people themselves, and in 
the development of the system the distribution 
of power and authority is by the state, even when 
it is conferred back upon the people themselves. 
And now in this distribution of authority and 



i8 SCHOOL LAWS 

duties we must keep in mind the fact already 
noted, that ours is a democratic and not a cent- 
tralized monarchial form of government. We 
must not set for ourselves the system or the 
methods of German administration as a guide 
and standard for our own. Hence, we must note 
several democratic principles that govern in this 
distribution of school duties and authority. 
III. General Principles. 

1. Authority and responsibility must be kept 
as near the people as possible. This is the very 
opposite to that of a centralized monarchial sys- 
tem. In the latter, the people are subordinate to 
and serve the government ; in the former they 
act for themselves and assume responsibility of 
judgment and action as far as practicable. This 
is the presumption, and when these duties are 
removed farther from them it must be for good 
reasons that commend themselves to public sen- 
timent. The bearing of this will appear when 
we come to consider the assignment of duties and 
offices to the people, to school boards, to county 
officers, the state retaining and exercising certain 
authority directly. 

2. The state represents the maturest public 
sentiment which can be efifectively incorporated 
in its institutions. It takes comprehensive views 
of social conditions. It is informed upon the 



OF MINNESOTA 19 

experiences and methods of other states. It has 
authority by which general conditions may be 
effected, and which cannot be done by the peo- 
ple ill any other capacity. For these reasons 
the state assumes direct authority in tlie follow- 
ing matters : 

(i) It requires uniformity of administration. 
In the formation of school districts, in the elec- 
tion of officers and in their duties and methods 
of doing business, in all of which the state de- 
lines what shall be done. The necessity of this 
is too obvious to require explanation. 

(2) It guarantees the honest and economical 
use of means in requiring bonds of school offi- 
cers, in making reports, in selecting qualified 
teachers and in requiring competent supervision 
of schools, and in compelling children to attend 
the school provided for tbem. 

(3) It protects the rights of individuals 
against unjust impositions. For example, it 
fixes a maximum limit of taxation for school 
purposes ; it establishes the claims of the teacher 
to pay for service ; it requires a minimum term 
of school, and authorizes the school board to 
levy a sufficient tax to support it. if not voted 
at the annual meeting. So the poor cannot over- 
tax the rich, neither can the rich prevent schools 
for the poor. It equalizes the burdens of tax- 



20 SCHOOL LAWS 

ation. This it does in the district, by requiring 
that the property of the district shall bear the 
burden of education ; also, in the state, requiring 
that the wealth of the state shall bear its share 
of the expenses of education. 

(4) It goes beyond the reach of authority and 
. encourages where it cannot compel, and stim- 
ulates by the assistance ofifered for excellence. 
It provides institutes and schools of instruction 
for teachers ; it ofifers additional support to dis- 
tricts that make special efiforts to conduct good 
schools ; it shares expenses in the purchase of 
good libraries. 

(5) It establishes and undertakes the entire 
support of higher institutions of learning that 
are wholly beyond the needs and abilities of any 
subdivision of the state, and yet are essential to 
the larger administration of state affairs, both 
politicallv and industrially. Such are the state 
normal schools and the state university, includ- 
ing its several departments. 

3. In the distribution of authority the state 
recognizes two distinct social conditions, each 
of which has its characteristics, and which must 
be considered in adapting a school system to 
tlie needs of the people. These are. rural and 
urban. 



OF MINNESOTA 21 

(i) Rural Society and Schools. 

Country life is marked by its simplicity and 
freedom. It has few restraints and few compro- 
mises that come from closer organization and 
cooperation. The unit of social life is the neigh- 
borhood. In this the spirit is democratic rather 
than representative. Every man is interested 
in and exercises his judgment in every matter 
of public concern, and often in much that is 
merely private. In rural life the people being- 
accustomed to look individually after their own 
affairs, delegated authority is limited, and expert 
skill in a systematic administration of public in- 
terests is not developed to a great degree. Ac- 
customed to manage their own afifairs, the people 
do not realize the importance of careful super- 
vision as their relations and interests become 
organized and complex. They are, therefore, 
often indifferent and opposed to a strict super- 
intendence of their schools. 

The prosperity and success of rural affairs is 
guaranteed more by the native integrity and 
honesty of the people than by exact and scientific 
methods of doing business and rendering ac- 
counts. In view of these facts and conditions, 
in the organization of rural schools by the state, 
the neighborhood is made the unit of administra- 
tion. The people in annual meeting have large 



22 SCHOOL LAWS 

powers in electing officers, voting taxes, fixing 
the school term, expenditure for equipment, and 
in auditing the accounts of officers. The school 
board has quite limited authority, in selecting 
teachers, and in expending the money of the dis- 
trict for salaries, equipment, buildings, etc., as 
directed by the people at the annual meeting. 
The supervision of the schools is assigned to 
an officer of the county to whom teachers and 
school officers make their respective reports. 

(2) Urban Society and Schools. 

The complexity of urban life requires a sub- 
division of labor, interdependence and coopera- 
tion, in wdiich each serves the many, and in 
turn receives the more from this community of 
interest. This requires a concession of many in- 
dividual rights, a delegation of authority to in- 
dividuals, who shall represent the whole and who 
shall be responsible for the faithful discharge 
of public trusts committed to them. 

The unit of this society is the municipality, 
and its citizens are accustomed to limit their per- 
sonal attention within the narrow boundaries of 
their own business, family and social circle, and 
to be content with a general knowledge of public 
affairs as conducted by those whom they have 
chosen to represent them. 

This being the case, the state makes the mu- 



OF MINNESOTA 23 

nicipality the territorial unit of education. It 
provides for the election of a board of education 
by the people ; and beyond this, within certain 
limitations fixed by the state, assigns to this 
board all other duties, as the voting of taxes, 
building school houses and equipping them, 
selecting teachers and superintendents, and mak- 
ing all rules for the conduct of the school, both 
in discipline and instruction. This is suf^cient 
to illustrate the general principle in the admin- 
istration of urban districts. The application of 
this principle to special districts need not be 
mentioned in this place. 

4. The General Govemuiciit in Ediicafioii. 

Although the general government has no 
authoritative relation to state systems of edu- 
cation, its influence has been no less potent in 
the encouragement it has given to every de- 
partment of education. It has stimulated the 
people to great effort and large expenditures 
by the large grants of land made to public 
schools and universities, and of lands and money 
to industrial schools and colleges. It has given 
direction to education through the advisory in- 
fluence of its Commissioner of Education of the 
Bureau of the Interior (Hon. Wm. T. Harris, 
the present incumbent), by his personal ad- 
dresses and contributions, and by the selected 



24 SCHOOL LAWS 

educational literature of the world, issued by 
the department to every educational center of 
the country. 

These are the guiding principles in the inter- 
pretation and estimate of school legislation. 
With these before us we may gain an under- 
standing of the laws we have, and may form 
a reasonable judgment of changes that promise 
to embody more exactly the fundamental prin- 
ciples upon which our system is founded. We 
shall see that the spirit of our system is not only 
to secure better schools for the children, but also 
to educate and elevate public sentiment. Every- 
thing the people can do they are left to do; 
and what is done for them is with a view to en- 
abling them to do more for themselves, both in 
a higher appreciation of their interests and re- 
sponsibilities, and also a corresponding expend- 
iture of labor and money for the support of ed- 
ucation. 

These results are the compensations for the in- 
complete and irregular character of our educa- 
tion, for the waste of money, and the superficial 
views that so largely characterize our school ad- 
ministration. The education of an administra- 
tive, democratic people is slovv', but it is worth 
all the time, experimentation and money it costs. 



CHAPTER II. 
Territorial Units. District Boundaries. 

I. Rural districts. 

In the organization of the state, the town- 
ship was recognized as the unit of administra- 
tion. The government grant was in two sections 
(i6 and 36) of each township (Enabhng Act. 
passed Feb. 26, 1857) ! '^"d the state Constitu- 
tion (Art. VIII, Sec. 3) provides that "The leg- 
islature shall make such provision" as "will se- 
cure a thorough and efficient system of public 
schools in each township of the state." In ef- 
fect, however, the neighborhood, into which so- 
cial life naturally crystalizes, was made the unit. 

1. Organisation and Change of Boundaries. 
Common school ijdistricts are org'anized by 

authority of the county commissioners of the 
county in which the district is located, (§16) and, 
in case of joint districts, by the joint action of the 
commissioners of the counties concerned (§§i6, 
20). 

2. Petitions for organization imisl contain : — 
(i) A description of the territory to be em- 
braced in the proposed district. 

(2) The number of persons, and the number of 



26 SCHOOL LAWS 

children between five and twenty-one years of 
age residing in the same. 

(3) The districts affected by the proposed 
change, together with the number of children of 
school age in each, and also the number of such 
children to be taken from such districts respect- 
ively. 

(4) It must have the signatures of a majority 
of free holders residing within the territory of 
the proposed new district who are entitled to 
vote at school meetings of their respective dis- 
tricts. These signatures must be made before 
some person authorized to take acknowledge- 
ment (§17). 

(5) Upon the presentation of this petition the 
county commissioners shall appoint a time and 
place of hearing, shall cause to be posted a notice 
thereof in each district affected, at least ten days 
before the time of hearing, and also cause to be 
served a like notice upon the clerk of each dis- 
trict affected (§18). 

Provision is also made for appeal to the dis- 
trict court by any freeholder aggrieved (§19); 
also, in case of division, for an equitable division 
of school property and obligations in buildings, 
moneys and bonds (§§22, 23). 

School districts may not be organized with 
less than twelve children of school age (§24). 



OF MINNESOTA '2.7 

Special provision is made for the relief of fam- 
ilies b}^ the organization of a new district, in 
the discretion of the commissioners, when the 
school of the district in which they reside is in- 
accessible (§28). 

(6) Consolidation into Independent Districts. 

Whenever a petition signed by a majority of 
the resident freeholders of each of two or more 
districts which are proposed to be organized into 
one independent district, duly certified to by 
their respective clerks, is presented to the coun- 
ty superintendent, he shall cause written or 
printed notices to be posted in three public places 
in each of the districts, requesting the qualified 
voters to assemble at some specified place in 
each district at the same date, not sooner than 
ten days after the notice, for the purpose of vot- 
ing upon the matter stated in the petition (§§211, 
212). 

The electors in favor of the proposed consol- 
idation shall cast ballots with the words "Inde- 
pendent district, yes," and those opposed, with 
the words "Independent district, no." 

If a majority of each district favor such con- 
solidation, the county superintendent shall, with- 
in ten days, certify the same to the county aud- 
itor or auditors, which fact shall immediately be 
entered upon his or their records (§215). 



28 SCHOOL LAWS 

Within thirty days after the first meetings the 
county superintendent shall post five notices in 
public places of the newly organized independent 
district, requesting the electors to assemble at 
some specified place, and a time not sooner 
than ten days after the notice for the purpose of 
electing a board of education. The laws govern- 
ing independent districts will govern in such 
district when not inconsistent with the provis- 
ions of this act. 

3. Transportation. 

The board of education of any district organ- 
ized under this act shall have power to provide 
for the transportation of children to and from 
school at public expense, provided that every 
person employed for this purpose shall give a 
reasonable bond for the faithful discharge of his 
duties (§§216-217).^ 

iLaws of 1903. (i) One or more districts adjoin- 
ing a district maintaining a state graded school or a 
state high school may be consolidated with that dis- 
trict upon a majority vote taken and duly certified to by 
the county superintendent. Such consolidated district 
shall have power to provide for the transportation of 
children to and from school at public expense. 

(2) The trustees of any school district may, when 
deemed best, dispense with holding a school, and may 
arrange with an adjoining district for the instruction of 
the children of said district. It shall be the duty of the 



OF MINNESOTA 29 

II. Independent and Special Districts — 
Municipality Unit. 

The general basis of organized independent 
and special districts is the larger municipal unit, 
which is political and industrial rather than so- 
cial, as is the neighborhood. This allows larger 
territory, as of two or more common school 
districts, to organize upon the same plan. The 
following are the general provisions of the stat- 
ute. 

1. Any incorporated city, town or village 
may be organized as an independent school dis- 
trict. It may or may not include common school 
district territory lying outside the boundaries of 
the municipality (§173). 

2. One or more school districts may be or- 
ganized into an independent district, provided 
(i) said territory contains not less than five hun- 

trustees of such district to provide for the transpor- 
tation of the children to and from the school to which 
they are assigned, and at the expense of the district. 
A separate record shall be kept and report made of 
these children, so that the state apportionment shall be 
made to the district in which they reside. 

(3) A special or independent school district in a 
city having over fifty thousand inhabitants may provide 
for the free transportation to and from school of chil- 
dren living more than one mile from a graded school. 



30 SCHOOL LAWS 

dred inhabitants, and (2) said territory does not 
exceed "six miles square" (§173). 

3. Method of Organization of Independent 
Districts. 

(i) Written notices must be signed by not 
less than six resident freeholders of the con- 
templated district appointing time and place of 
meeting of all qualified electors, then and there 
to vote by ballot for or against organization. 
These notices must be posted in three public 
places and at least ten days prior to said meeting. 

(2) Ax this meeting, after the appointment of 
presiding officers, chairman, assistant chairman 
and clerk, who shall also be judges of said elec- 
tion, all electors in favor of said organization 
shall write "Independent district. Yes," upon 
their ballots ; and those opposed shall write "In- 
dependent district, No" (§175). 

(3) In case a majority of votes are cast in 
favor of such organization, a second meeting is 
called by the chairman and clerk within twenty 
days at the same place by a notice posted at least 
ten da3's previous. At this second meeting there 
shall be chosen by ballot six directors, who shall 
serve until the time of the regular annual meet- 
ing, the third Saturday in July, at which time 
six directors shall be chosen, two for one year, 
two for two years, and two for three years ; and 



OF MINNESOTA 31 

annually thereafter two directors shall be chosen 
to serve for three years or until their successors 
are elected and qualified (§176). 

4. Special districts are such as are organized 
under a special charter, which specifies all that 
pertains to the territory included, and the duties 
and authority of the board of education. In 
general the special school district follows the plan 
of the independent district. The constitutional 
amendment, adopted 1892, forbids special legis- 
lation. 

5. Changes in Boundaries. 

The boundaries of all districts, rural, independ- 
ent and special, are changed under a uniform 
law. The county commissioners have power 
under prescribed conditions to change the boun- 
daries of districts, as follows : 

(i) Petitions shall be presented by one or 
more persons. 

(2) Notice, verified by affidavit, shall be posted 
by the county commissioners in each district af- 
fected, setting forth the substance of the petition, 
and fixing time and place of hearing in each dis- 
trict affected ; and shall also cause to be served 
a copy upon the clerk of each district afifected 
at least ten davs previous to the time of hearing 

(^37)- 

(3) If the prayer of the petitioners is granted, 



32 SCHOOL LAWS 

an exact record shall be entered upon the books 
of the commissioners, and a copy of the same 
sent to the clerk of each district affected (§38). 

(4) A petition for a rehearing may be filed 
with the county auditor within twenty days of 
the time when the commissioners entered their 
order by any live or more voters who are res- 
ident freeholders and are aggrieved by the pro- 
posed change. Said petition shall be presented 
at the next meeting of the commissioners, and 
after due notice has been filed with the clerks 
of the affected districts, the petition shall be con- 
sidered and decision rendered (§38).^ 

'§ I. If parents are residents of a district in good 
faith their children are entitled to its privileges. Inten- 
tion must be decided by the avowed purpose of a party. 

A minor who is a bona fide resident, although his par- 
ents reside in another district, is entitled to tuition in 
the district. 

§ 30. Women may be made eligible to a school office 
without giving them the right to vote. 

A woman who is entitled to vote and is a freeholder 
may sign petitions and remonstrances respecting the 
formation and alteration of school districts. 

The citizenship of a foreign born woman, when mar- 
ried is established with that of her husband. 



CHAPTER III. 
School Administration. 

A. Administration of Rural Schools. 

I. Poii'crs of the Electors at Annual and 

Special Meetings. 
At the annual meeting, held on the third Sat- 
urday in July, the voters have authority : 

1. To appoint a moderator; and adjourn from 
time to time. 

2. To elect by ballot a director, a clerk and 
a treasurer, and each one for three years in 
such order that the term of but one shall expire 
each year. 

3. To designate a site for a school house ; 
also, to change the site upon certain prescribed 
conditions (§45. Fourth). 

4. To vote tax for support of the school ; 
to purchase, build or hire a school house when 
necessary ; to provide for necessary repairs, fur- 
niture, library, apparatus and fuel (§45). 

5. The tax levy in any one year for building 
a school house, leasing or procuring a site, shall 
not exceed eight mills on the dollar. But in 
case this limit will not produce the sum of six 
hundred dollars, the limit may be raised to pro- 



34 SCHOOL LAWS 

diice said sum, provided that the hmit of twenty- 
five mills shall not be exceeded (§45). 

By authority of the General Tax Law "There 
shall be levied annually" as voted by the district, 
not to exceed fifteen mills for the support of 
the school or ten mills for the erection of a 
school house. 

6. In effect, and indirectly, the annual meet- 
ing determines the length of the school term 
beyond five months — that required by law — by 
the tax voted for its support. 

Duties assigned to the trustees cannot be as- 
sumed by the annual meeting. 

7. Voters. 

The persons entitled to vote at the annual 
meeting are (i) Bona fide residents in the dis- 
tricts. 

(2) Freeholders, or those holding real prop- 
erty. These only are authorized to call special 
meetings ; to sign petitions for a change of dis- 
trict boundary ; to sign petitions for rehearing 
in change of district boundaries, and to sign 
petitions to consolidate districts (§§17, 38, 63, 
212). 

(3) A woman is a legal voter at any election 
or meeting in the school district in which she 
has had a residence for ten days, provided she 
is twenty-one years of age and upwards, belong- 



OF MINNESOTA 35 

ing to either of the classes mentioned in sec- 
tion one of Article seven of the Constitution of 
the State of Minnesota, and has resided in the 
United States one year, and in the state four 
months. She may vote upon any measure relat- 
ing to schools, and shall be eligible to hold any 
office pertaining solely to the management of 
public schools (§30). 

If she is a freeholder she has the rights of a 
freeholder in the signing of petitions, remon- 
strances and the like (§39). 

II. School Board. 

Election and Qualification. 

In each common school district there shall 
be a director, a treasurer and a clerk, to be 
elected by ballot at the annual school meeting, 
and for a term of three years and until their 
successors are elected and qualified. The elec- 
tions shall be so arranged that but one of these 
three will be elected each year. If an officer is not 
elected to fill the vacancy at any annual meeting 
the incumbent shall continue in office till the 
next annual meeting, when the vacancv shall 
be filled for the unexpired term. And if a va- 
cancy occurs during a term, the remaining trus- 
tees shall fill the vacancy until the next annual 
meeting, when the vacancy shall be filled for 
the unexpired term. 



36 SCHOOL LAWS 

Within ten days after notice of election is 
served by the district clerk, the person elected 
shall file his acceptance in the office of the 
clerk. His oath may be filed later within a rea- 
sonable time. The treasurer must also file his 
bond with suf^cient sureties for double the 
amount that will come into his hands during his 
term of service (§§49. 50, 51, 59). 

I. Duties of the Board. 

These three officers constitute a board of 
trustees. They shall have general charge of 
the schools and schoolhouses in their district. 

(i) They shall hire legally qualified teachers, 
shall make written contracts with such teachers, 
specifying term of service and wages per month. 
In case a teacher is related by blood or marriage 
to either of the trustees he can be engaged only 
upon the unanimous vote of the board, duly en- 
tered on the clerk's record. 

(2) They shall make all necessary provision 
for the school in fuel, repairs and the like for a 
term of at least five months, and for such fur- 
ther time as the district may direct ; but they are 
prohibited from incurring indebtedness. 

If no provision by tax voted has been made 
by the annual meeting, the trustees are author- 
ized to levy a tax sufficient to maintain a five 
months school (§§52 (a), 57). 



OF MINNESOTA ^7 

(3) When authorized by a vote of the district 
they shah lease, purchase, sell or exchange 
school house or site ; and with funds provided 
for that purpose they shall build, hire or pur- 
chase a suitable school house (§52). 

(4) When authorized by a two-thirds vote of 
all legal voters present at a legally called special 
meeting' or any annual meeting", the trustees may 
issue the bonds of the district, to be payable 
within fifteen years, and bearing interest not to 
exceed seven per cent. (§75). 

(5) The board of trustees or board of edu- 
cation is authorized to select, adopt or contract 
for text books needful for the use of the school 
mider its charge, and to purchase the same and 
provide for the loan free of charge, or sale at 
cost to pupils of the school, provided that no 
adoption or contract shall be for a period of 
less than three nor more than five years (§296). 

2. Duties of the Clerk. 

(i) The clerk shall act as clerk in all district 
meeting?, and shall keep a record of the pro- 
ceedings of the district meetings ; of board meet- 
ings ; of all reports to the county auditor and 
county superintendent; of the term reports as 
they appear in teachers' registers, and shall de- 
liver the same to his successor in office (§62). 

(2) He shall give ten days notice of each an- 



38 SCHOOL LAWS 

nnal and special meeting by posting three no- 
tices in conspicuous places. 

(3) On or before the tenth day of August an- 
nually he shall make a certified and detailed re- 
port on a blank provided, showing the financial 
condition of the district as required in the blank 
furnished. He shall also report to the county 
superintendent the time of the commencement 
of each term, two weeks before the said com- 
mencement ( §64) . 

(4) On or before the tenth of October he 
shall annually furnish the County Auditor an 
attested copy of his district showing the amount 
of money voted by the district for school pur- 
poses, and any amount levied by the trustees 
without the vote of the district (§67). 

(5) He shall draw all orders on the treasurer 
of the district for the payment of teachers wages 
and for other lawful purposes, — each order to be 
numbered, dated, purpose stated for which it was 
drawn, and attested by the director (§70). 

(6) The clerk shall receive pay at the rate of 
two per cent on cash disbursements of the year, 
provided that the amount shall not exceed six 
dollars except by direct vote of the district (§66). 

3. Duties of the Treasurer. 
(i) The treasurer shall file a bond with suf- 
ficient sureties to be accepted by the clerk and 



OF MINNESOTA 39 

director, for two-thirds of the amount of money 
estimated as coming into his hands during his 
term (§59). 

(2) He shall receive and pay out all moneys 
detailed account of the same (§61). 
helonging to the district, keeping an accurate and 

(3) Three days before the annual meeting he 
shall file with the clerk of the district a detailed 
report of all receipts of moneys from all sources 
and of all disbursements accompanied with 
vouchers therefor. 

His report shall be audited by the clerk and 
director, and, if found correct be indorsed by 
them, and be so reported to the annual meeting 
for its approval, upon which the annual meeting 
may authorize the clerk to issue an order in favor 
of the treasurer to an amount not exceeding two 
per cent on all orders regularly drawn and paid 
by him during the year (§60).^ 

4. Duties of the Director. 

The duties of the director are less individual 
than of the clerk and treasurer. He acts as a 

^§ 45. The acts of district officers are limited in mode 
manner and subject matter, by the authority con- 
ferred in the statute. Hence they cannot contract for the 
erection or lease of a school house; neither can they lo- 
cate a school house without the authority of the district 
meeting. Likewise, the district meeting, under corres- 
ponding limitations, cannot select the teacher or fix his 
salary. 



40 SCHOOL LAWS 

member of the board in the duties that belong 
to that body, and which have already been con- 
sidered. As director he approves the bond of 
the treasurer, attests orders issued by the clerk, 
and Avith the clerk audits the report of the treas- 
urer. When actions are brought against the dis- 
trict, and no other provision has been made by 
a lawful meeting of the legal voters the director 
shall appear in behalf of his district (§289). 

In the enforcement of the compulsory educa- 
cation law it is made the duty of the director, 
as well as of the president of the board of ed- 
ucation, to inquire into all cases of neglect, and 
if they are apparent and w'ithout reasonable ex- 
cuse, he shall proceed to secure the prosecution 
of the same. If he neglects to secure prosecu- 
tion for such offense within ten days after writ- 
ten notice has been served upon him by any 
taxpayer of his district, he shall be liable to a 
fine of not less than tw^enty nor more than fifty 
dollars, unless the person complained of has been 
excused by the district board (§287). 

III. Teachers. 

I. Qualifications. 

A legally qualified teacher is one who holds 
a certificate from an authorized officer or insti- 
tution, authorizing him to teach in a given school 
or class of schools for a given length of time 



OF MINNESOTA 41 

(§§279, 52a). (See Certificates and Examina- 
tions.) 

2. Contracts. 

(i) A teacher having been elected by a board 
of trustees at a meeting called for that purpose 
may make a written contract naming wages, 
and the beginning and length of the term of ser- 
vice (§52a). It should specify the time when sal- 
?nes will be due and paid, whether monthly or at 
the close of the term. 

(2) The wages of teachers shall be paid out 
of moneys raised or apportioned for that pur- 
pose, and that in the order of the terms of their 
service (§72). 

(3) When an order on the treasurer for teach- 
er's wages is presented, and not paid for want 
of funds, the treasurer shall endorse upon the 
back, "Not paid, for want of funds," with date 
of endorsement and the signature of the treas- 
urer. Such order shall then bear seven per cent 
interest until the treasurer serves a written no- 
tice upon the payee or his assignee, personally 
or by mail, that he is prepared to pay such order. 
In case the address is unknown to the treasurer 
and the notice cannot be served, the order shall 
not draw interest beyond the tim.e when the 
funds are in the hands of the treasurer for its 
payment (§70). This makes it incumbent upon 



42 SCHOOL LAWS 

the payee that his address shall always be in the 
possession of the treasurer. 

The revoking of a certificate is in effect the 
annulling of the contract. (See County Super- 
intendents — Duties.) 

3. Terms of School. 

A school month consists of twenty days or 
four weeks of five days each (§106). 

The following are the legal holidays on which 
no teacher shall be required to teach school. 
Any contract to the contrary is void and no de- 
duction from the teacher's salary can be made by . 
reason of such cessation of school. Christmas ; 
New Years ; Lincoln's birthday — February 
twelfth ; Washington's birthday — February twen- 
ty-second; Soldiers' Memorial day — April thir- 
tieth ; Labor day — first Monday in September ; 
Thanksgiving day — uniformly the last Thursday 
in November. 

4. Duties. 

(i) In a register furnished by the clerk of the 
district, the teacher shall keep a record of names 
and daily attendance of all scholars, checking 
names of all who are under five or over twenty- 
one years of age, and all who are charged tu- 
ition. Of those between five and twenty-one 
his record must enable him to report them in 
three classes; (a) those between five and eight 



OF MINNESOTA 43 

years ; (b) those between eight and fifteen years ; 
and, (c) those between fifteen and twenty-one 
years. 

(2) The teacher shall make detailed report as 
required by law, and as instructed in blanks fur- 
nished him to the county superintendent of 
schools vvjthin ten days after the close of the first 
term in the school year, August first. To en- 
sure promptness in making these reports, the 
clerk is prohibited from drawing an order for 
the teacher's salary for the last month until this 
report has been properly made and returned to 
the clerk (§164). 

(3) Teachers shall give regular and systematic 
instruction in physiology and hygiene including 
special reference to the effects of stimulants and 
narcotics upon the human system. Neglect to 
obey this law is sufficient cause for annulling 
ihe certificate of the offending teacher by the 
county superintendent (§367).^ 

i§ 52a. A teacher's contract is valid as long as he 
holds a valid certificate. It is not in\alidatedby the ex- 
piration of a certificate, provided another is obtained be- 
fore the expiration of the former. 

A verbal teacher's contract cannot be enforced. 

A written teacher's contract is not valid if not voted at 
a board meeting as provided by the statute. 

§ 70. School orders may be paid by the treasurer 
without the signature of the clerk, but not without the 
signature of the director. 

§ IC9. In common school districts the authority to 



44 SCHOOL LAWS 

I\^. Superintendence. 

1. Election. 

In the supervision of rural schools the unit is 
the county, and the officer is known as the coun- 
ty superintendent of schools. 

The county superintendent of schools is elected 
biennially by the voters of the county at the gen- 
eral state election on the first Tuesday after the 
first Monday in November. He qualifies and 
assumes the duties of the office on the first ]\Ion- 
day of January following. His term of service 
is two years, and until his successor is elected 
and qualified (§147). In case of vacancy the 
county commissioners shall appoint some person 
to serve till the next general election (§148).^ 

2. Salary and Expenses. 

The annual salary of the county superintend- 
ent shall be fixed by the county commissioners, 
at a rate not less than ten dollars for each or- 
ganized district in the county, and not to ex- 
examine, grade and assign studies to pupils rests wholly 
with the teacher. The law prescibes what studies may 
and shall be taught. The trustees are required to visit 
the schools, and to give advice to the teacher when nec- 
essary, and to have general charge of the schools and 
schoolhouses. Under this general provision they may 
doubtless expel unruly and incorrigible pupils; but the 
management of the schools rests wholly with the teacher. 

^By constitutional amendment (1883) the terms of all 
state officers were made to begin on January first. 



OF MINNESOTA 45 

ceed eighteen hundred dollars. 

In counties in which the salary of the super- 
intendent exceeds twelve hundred dollars, the 
county commissioners are authorized to allow a 
reasonable sum for travelling expenses and the 
keeping of a team, but not to exceed two hun- 
dren and fifty dollars (§151), 

He shall be furnished by the county auditor 
with necessary stationery for examinations and 
official correspondence. Bills for postage for 
official correspondence, express charges, and the 
printing of notices, circulars, questions and re- 
ports pertaining to his office shall be paid by the 
county, provided that all required reports of 
school visitation have been filed with the county 
auditor (§150). 

3. Duties. 

(i) The county superintendent shall conduct 
examinations for state teachers' certificates in 
his county, either in person or by proxy, upon 
questions prepared by and under regulations pre- 
scribed by the state superintendent of public 
instruction, and transmit the examination pa- 
pers to the department of public instruction for 
estimate and grading by the state superintend- 
ent. 

(2) He may issue a second grade certificate 
good for one year to applicants not under seven- 



46 SCHOOL LAWS 

teen (17) years of age, who have passed the 
scholastic examination given by the state super- 
intendent of pubhc instruction. 

He may, on his own examination, issue his 
own certificate of the third grade, but vaHd only 
in a given district specified in the certificate and 
for one year, not renewable without examination, 
and not to be issued a third time to the same per- 
son in the same district (§265). 

He may issue on his own examination a cer- 
tificate of any grade to applicants who present 
satisfactory proof that they were unable to be 
present at the public examination. Such cer- 
tificate shall be valid only in a district ?])':ciried 
on its face and until the next succeeding pub- 
lic examination (§267). 

(3) Supervision of Semi-graded Schools. 

Of the schools under the supervision of the 
county superintendent it is provided that any 
common school district or public school in any 
hamlet or village or any township graded school 
may receive special state aid for each school 
building wherein school has been held as re- 
quired, according to the following conditions. 

(a) School shall have been maintained at least 
eight months for the school year next preceding 
that for which aid is ciranted. 



OF MINNESOTA 47 

(b) It shall be well organized, having two de- 
partments under efficient teachers, at least one 
of whom shall hold a first grade certificate or 
a diploma, valid as a certificate, from the ad- 
vanced course of a normal school of this state, 
or a diploma from the advanced course of a nor- 
mal school of another state approved by the 
state superintendent, or a professional state cer- 
tificate, and all other departments shall be taught 
by teachers holding at least a second grade cer- 
tificate. 

(c) It shall have suitable building, outhouses, 
library and apparatus. 

(d) It shall have an orderly course of study, 
and shall comply with the rules of the super- 
intendent of public instruction (§§234,235), A])- 
plications for aid must be made to the superin- 
tendent of public instruction through the county 
superintendent, and with his indorsement and 
certificate that all required conditions have been 
complied with (§236). Upon proper application 
and certification the state superintendent shall 
apportion to each of such semi-graded schools 
the sum of two hundred (200) dollars, provided 
that in case the amount available is not suffi- 
cient to apportion the full amount to each school, 
then the amount available shall be apportioned 



48 SCHOOL LAWS 

pro rata among all schools entitled thereto 
(§237). 1 

(4) Supervision of State Rural Schools. 

Of the rural schools under the supervision of 
the county superintendent, it is provided that 
any common school district not located in an 
incorporated village or city may receive state 
aid for each school building wherein school has 
been held as required, according to the following 
conditions : 

(a) School shall have been maintained at least 
eight months during the year preceding that for 
which aid is granted. 

(b) It must be taught by a teacher holding a 
first grade certificate, or a diploma from a normal 
school of this state or a diploma of another state 
approved by the state superintendent of public 
instruction. 

It must have a suitable school building, out 
houses, library and other necessary apparatus. 

(c) Application for aid must be made to the 
superintendent of public instruction through and 
with the indorsement and recommendation of 
the county superintendent of schools certifying 
that all required conditions have been complied 
with (§§240, 241, 242). 

^Law of 1903. State semi-graded schools may receive 
$250 each. Appropriation, $67,000. 



OF MINNESOTA 49 

Upon proper application and certification, the 
state superintendent shall apportion to each of 
such schools the sum of one hundred (100)^ dol- 
lars, provided that in case the amount available 
is not sufificient to apportion the full amount to 
each school, then the amount available shall be 
apportioned pro rata among all the schools en- 
titled thereto (§243). 

(5) His relation to the state high school board 
shall be the same as that of a principal or su- 
perintendent of the schools ; and upon his ap- 
plication to said state board, examinations or tests 
shall be granted to common district schools, and 
to schools of independent and special districts, 
even though not under the supervision of the state 
high school board. And under the supervision 
of said board he shall establish a regular and or- 
derly course of study that shall fully meet the re- 
quirements of said examination or tests (§153). 

(6) He may cite for re-examination any 
teacher upon satisfactory evidence that such 
teacher is without good moral character or with- 
out sufficient learning and ability to teach a 
common school. Upon refusal by such teacher 
to appear for re-examination when summoned, 
the superintendent shall revoke the certificate 

^Law of 1903. State rural schools may receive $125 
each. Appropriation, $100,000. 



50 SCHOOL LAWS 

held by him, fihng a statement of this act in the 
office of the district clerk, and delivering a copy 
of the same to the person whose certificate is re- 
voked (§157). 

(7) He shall forward to clerks of districts and 
to teachers of schools all required blanks fur- 
nished by the state superintendent (§158). 

(8) He shall visit each school of his county 
at least once in each year, and give such advice 
to the teacher as may seem necessary (§152). 
And on the first day of July, October, January 
and April of each year he shall file with the 
county auditor a statement of the number of 
schools visited the preceding quarter, together 
with the numbers of the districts and dates of 
visitation (§150). 

(9) He shall report to the county auditor on 
the day preceding the last Wednesday of Octo- 
ber in each year an abstract of the number of 
scholars enrolled in each school within the year 
and entitled to be counted for apportionment 
from the current school fund, together with the 
length of each school in months (§160.) 

(10) On the twentieth day of September in 
each year he shall report to the state superintend- 
ent the number of dififerent scholars between the 
ages of five and twenty-one years properly en- 
rolled in the school of each district. This re- 



OF MINNESOTA 51 

port must also contain such other tabulated 
matter as is required by the blanks provided by 
the state superintendent (§159). 

(11) A superintendent failing to make the re- 
quired reports to the auditor and state superin- 
tendent, upon which depend the apportionments 
of the state to the counties and districts, shall be 
guilty of misdemeanor, and shall forfeit for each 
omission the sum of fifty dollars, to be deducted 
from his salary by the county commissioners 
(§163). 

(12) Upon retiring from office, the superin- 
tendent shall deliver to the auditor, for his suc- 
cessor, all records of his office, including a 
list of the school district clerks with their post 
office addresses, a list of all common school 
teachers under contract in any district, and all 
records, blanks and other property belonging to 
his office and in his possession. Full payment of 
his salary by the county auditor shall not be 
made until he has complied witli this requirement 
(§149)- 

B. Independent Districts. 

I. The electors of an independent district, 
having exercised their authority in its organiza- 
tion as indicated in Chapter II, page 30, have the 
following duties : 



52 SCHOOL LAWS 

( 1 ) They shall annually on the third Saturday 
in July, elect two directors, whose terms of office 
shall be for three years, and until their successors 
are elected and qualified (§176). They shall also 
fill vacancies by election for the unexpired term 
(§181). 

(2) At a meeting regularly called by the di- 
rectors they shall vote (a) for or against the 
erection of a school house and the purchase of 
a site therefor,, and (b) the amount of money to 
be raised for the purpose aforesaid.^ 

(3) At a meeting called and held in the man- 
ner as nearly as may be for the purpose of or- 
ganizing independent districts, and by a two- 
thirds vote of the legal voters at such election, 
any independent district organized under Chaptef 
36 of the General Statutes of 1878, or under any 
special law of this state may dissolve its organ- 
ization (§208). 

(4) In cities of less than fifty thousand inhab- 
itants, upon petition of twenty-five per cent of the 

^Law of 1903. The legal voters of any town in the 
state forming part of a common school district contain- 
ing twenty or more townships may elect a town school 
superintendent, whose duty it shall be to advise the 
board regarding school properties and supplies, and hir- 
ing teachers. He shall also look after truants, visit the 
schools and report conditions to the trustees. 



OF MINNESOTA 53 

legal voters, estimated from the last general elec- 
tion, the school board may be increased to two 
members for each ward, whose term of office 
shall be for two years or until their successors 
are elected and qualified (§§202, 203, 204). 

(5) School districts with over fifty thousand 
(50,000) inhabitants, may vote, in addition to 
other sums authorized by law, a tax not exceed- 
ing three mills, two and a half mills of which 
may be appropriated to the general maintenance, 
and the remainder to the erection, repair, fur- 
nishing and fitting of school buildings, and the 
purchase of school sites, and for no other pur- 
pose ; but the total tax levy for the maintenance 
of schools shall not exceed eight mills for any 
one year (§47). 

(6) In cities of less than ten thousand (10,000) 
inhabitants, and in which taxes are levied by 
the city council, it shall be the duty of such 
council, when the boundaries of the district are 
coterminous with those of corporate limits of 
the city, to levy a tax suflficient to cover de- 
ficiencies as estimated and reported to them by 
the board of education, provided that said tax 
levy for any financial school year shall not ex- 
ceed fifteen mills (§378a). 

2. Organization of the Board. 

Within ten days after their election, and an- 



54 SCHOOL LAWS 

nually thereafter on the first Saturday of August, 
the board shall meet and organize by choosing 
a president, a clerk and a treasurer for a term 
of one year and until their successors are elected 
and qualified (§178). 

3. Poivers and Duties of Boards of Educa- 
tion. 

(i) To establish and organize grades of 
schools. 

(2) To provide rooms, buildings and grounds 
for schools. 

(3) When authorized by the district to pur- 
chase and erect school houses and purchase sites 
for the same. 

(4) To provide fuel, furniture, apparatus and 
other appendages for school houses. 

(5) To provide for repairs, care and insurance. 

(6) To contract with, employ and pay teach- 
ers legally qualified and to discharge the same. 

(7) To defray the expenses of the board, pay 
clerk, treasurer and superintendent, printing, 
record books, stationery and necessary incidental 
expenses. 

(8) To superintend and manage in all respects 
all that pertains to the schools in organization, 
government, instruction, records, text-books, 
courses of study and the admission and expul- 
sion of pupils. 



OF MINNESOTA 55 

(9) To make rules for the protection of prop- 
erty of the district. 

(10) To make and change rules for its own 
government and the duties of its officers. 

(11) To provide for the prompt payment of 
indebtedness by a levy of the necessary tax. 

(12) To provide for examiners the required 
blank forms of certificates, 

(13) To execute and deliver deeds, mortgages, 
releases and other instruments when duly author- 
ized by a vote of the district (§198). 

(14) To estimate the amount required to sup- 
port the school including all necessary expenses, 
excepting for the erection of school houses and 
the purchase of sites, and on or before October 
tenth of each year report the same to the county 
auditor to be assessed, collected and paid over to 
the treasurer of the district (§199). 

(15) To issue bonds for amounts authorized 
by the vote of the district, which bonds shall 
be signed by the president and clerk of the 
board, and be made payable at such time, not 
exceeding fifteen years, as the board may direct, 
and with interest not to exceed five per cent, 
and not to be sold at less than their par value 
(§192). 

(16) To make accurate and detailed report to 



S6 SCHOOL LAWS 

the annual meeting of all receipts and disburse- 
ments (§200), 

(17) To elect by ballot, in their discretion a 
superintendent, who shall hold his office during 
the pleasure of the board, and at such compen- 
sation as shall be fixed by the board (§178). 

(18) To fix the compensation of the clerk and 
treasurer (§179.) 

(19) To fill vacancies until the next annual 
district meeting (§181). 

(20) To establish kindergartens for children 
of the ages between four and five years, to be 
supported, the same as other grades, also to em- 
ploy kindergarten teachers holding legal certifi- 
cates (§§200, 201).^ 

4. Duties of the Clerk (§187). 

(i) To keep record of the proceedings of dis- 
trict and board meetings ; and of all reports 
made by him ; and of all expenses of the district ; 
and of the inventory of all property of the dis- 

'§ III. Boards of education and of health have 
power in the interest of the public health to require vac- 
cination as a pre-requisite to the entrance of children in 
the schools. 

^Law of 1903. Boards of education of over 50,000 
inhabitants may make rules for the examination of 
teachers, for the government and grading of their 
schools, for books to be used and for the courses of 
instruction. 



OF MINNESOTA 57 

trict. He shall also keep all records, books and 
papers belonging to his office. 

(2) To report to the county auditor on or be- 
fore the tenth of October annually the amount 
voted for school purposes by the district or by 
the board of education. 

(3) To give notice of all meetings of the dis- 
trict. 

(4) To draw and sign orders upon the treas- 
urer for the payment of money when so ordered 
by the board. 

(5) To transmit on or before the tenth of 
August annually a written detailed report tO' the 
county superintendent of schools of receipts and 
disbursements within the year as required by 
the blank form furnished by the department of 
public instruction. 

5. Duties of the Treasurer (§189). 

(i) To execute a bond before entering upon 
the duties of his office in double the estimated 
amount of money which will come into his hands 
as treasurer within the year. This bond shall 
be signed by two sureties approved by the board, 
and shall be filed with the clerk of the board. 

(2) To receive and pay out all moneys belong- 
ing to the district upon the order of the board, 
and keep an accurate account of each fund com- 
insf into his hands. 



58 SCHOOL LAWS 

(3) To file with the clerk within three days 
preceding the annual meeting a written and de- 
tailed report of all receipts and disbursements 
during the year ; said report to be audited by 
the board and entered upon their records. He 
shall also make such additional reports as may 
be required by the board. 

(4) To pay to his successor in office, upon de- 
mand, all money in his hands, and perform such 
other duties as may be ordered by the board. 

6. The Superintendent of Schools. 

(i) Is elected by the board and receives com- 
pensation as the board votes and determines. 
He is ex-officio a member of the board, but 
without a vote (§178). 

(2) He is required to visit the schools of the 
district, to superintend the grading, the exam- 
inations for promotion, and perform such other 
duties as may be required of the board ; and 
shall make report to the board as often as they 
require (§185). 

(3) He shall make to the state superintendent 
of public instruction, directly, or through the 
county superintendent of schools, such reports 
as may be required. 

C. Special Districts. 

I. Previous to the adoption of the constitu- 
tional amendment (1883) prohibiting special legis- 



OF MINNESOTA 59 

lation,many districts were organized under special 
charters enumerating boundaries, organization 
and powers of electors and of officers. In 
general, they have followed the plan of inde- 
pendent districts in their administration, in some 
cases, howcA-er, curtailing the authority of the 
board especially in levying taxes, and in con- 
ferring greater authority upon the annual meet- 
ing. 

2. They are generally corporate bodies (§177), 
but may be only administrative under the author- 
ity of the common council. As examples of the 
two types we present in parallel columns the 
outlines of the system of Minneapolis, represent- 
ing the usual organization as corporate bodies, 
and of St. Paul, representing the second type, 
in which the powers of the board are limited, 
and administered under the mayor and common 

council of the city. 

Constitution of the Local Educational Authority in the 

CiTLEs of Minneapolis and St. Paul.* 

Minneapolis St. Paul 

Name of Educational Authority 

Board of Education. Board of School Inspectors. 

Njcmber of Members. Hoiv Elected. 
The Board of Education con- The Board of School Inspec- 

sists of 7 School Directors elect- tors consists of seven persons 
ed by the people at the time of, appointed by the Mayor, 
and as a part of, the general bi- 
ennial election for State and 
Connty Officers, but on a sepa- 
rate ballot. 

*Compiled from the Report of the Commissioner of Education 
(U. S. A.), 1895-96, Vol. I., Chap. I., Laws relating to City School 
Boards. 



6o 



SCHOOL LAWS 



Term of Office. 



The term of office is six years, 
'wo school directors being elect- 
ed every two years, except every 
sixth year, when three are elect- 
ed. 



The term of office is three 
years, two School Inspectors be- 
ing appointed every year except 
every third year, when three are 
appointed. 



Vacancies, hoiv filled. 
Vacancies are filled at the Vacancies are filled by the 

next annual election for the un- Mayor for the unexpired term 
expired term of office. of office. 

Officers of the Board. 
The Officers consist of a Pres- The Board elects a President, 

.dent and Secretary, \yho ni^ust Vice-President, and Secretary to 



be School Directors. The City 
Treasurer and City Controller 
are Treasurer and Controller, 
respectively, of the Board. The 
Officers are elected annually. 



serve for one year, and a Super- 
intendent of Public Schools to 
serve for two years. 



General Poivers of the Board. 



The Board of Education is a 
legal Corporation, has a com- 
mon seal, and is capable of suing 
and being sued, of buying, re- 
ceiving, selling, and conveying 
real or personal property, and of 
making and enforcing contracts. 
The title to all real and personal 
public school property in the 
City is vested in the Board. 



The Board of School Inspec- 
tors is not a corporation, and 
cannot sue or be sued or hold 
property, all contracts being 
made in the name of the City of 
St. Paul, and the title to' all 
property being vested in the 
City. 



The Board of Education is au- 
thorized and empowered to levy 
upon the taxable property in the 
city such taxes as will raise suf- 
ficient sums of money for all 
school purposes, including pur- 
chase of sites and buildings and 
expenses of maintenance of the 
same, but the aggregate levy 
must never exceed in any one 
year 4 mills on the dollar of as- 
sessed valuation. 

The Board must make return 
of the annual levy of taxes to 
the County Auditor, and the 
taxes are collected by county of- 
ficers at the same time and in 
the same manner as State 
and county taxes, and the 
full amount paid over to the 
City Treasurer to the credit of 
the'Board of Education. 



Authority to Levy Taxes. 

The expense of the Public 
Schools is limited to the amount 
appropriated by the Common 
Council. The tax imposed by 
the Council may not be greater 
than 2'/< mills, nor less than 2 
mills on the dollar of assessed 
valuation. All school moneys 
are paid to the City Treasurer, 
and the City Treasurer and Con- 
troller report to the Board of In- 
spectors every month as to the 
amount of funds in the City 
Treasury set apart by the Coun- 
cil for educational purposes. 



OF MINNESOTA 



6i 



Authority to obtain Sites and 
The Board of Education may 
purchase real estate for school 
purposes if six directors vote for 
such purchase, and may sell or 
convey the same on the vote of 
five directors. They have also 
compulsory powers of acquiring 
real estate whenever it is deem- 
ed expedient to do so. The 
Board may hire or erect and 
maintain school-houses, and has 
entire control and management 
of all the common schools of the 
city. 



erect School Buildings, etc. 

The Board of School Inspec- 
tors must report annually to the 
Council as to the need of new 
buildings, specifying as nearly 
as possible the cost of the sites 
required and the probable cost 
of suitable buildings. If the 
state of the school fund justifies 
it, the Council by a three-quar- 
ter vote may empower the May- 
or and the President of the 
Board of Inspectors to obtain 
the necessary sites and erect 
suitable buildings in accordance 
with f)lans and estimates sub- 
mitted by the Board of Inspec- 
tors. The Board of School In- 
spectors have the care, custody 
and control of school-houses. 
They cannot, however, purchase 
their own sujiplies, but must 
make a yearly statement to the 
Mayor of what are required. 
These are then advertised for 
and obtained by a Committee of 
the Council. 

Authority to employ and to dismiss Teachers, etc. 



The Board of Education has 
power to employ superinten- 
dents and teachers, and to make 
rules and regulations for the 
government of the schools and 
for the employment and exami- 
nation of teachers, prescribing 
their powers and duties. They 
also make rules for the grading 
and classification of puiiils and 
prescribe the course of study, 
books to be used, etc. 



The Board of School Inspec- 
tors have full power to employ 
and dismiss teachers, the City 
Council having no control over 
them in this respect. Teachers 
serve during the pleasure of the 
Board, and after one year's suc- 
cessful service are not subject 
to annual elections. 

The Board reports yearly to the 
Mayor on the subject of teachers' 
salaries, specifying in detail the 
salaries proposed for the coming 
year. This report is transmitted 
to the Council, who may reduce 
the total amount, but may not 
raise it nor may they fix the sal- 
ary of any teacher. 

3. Annual School Meetings of Special Dis- 
tricts. 

The board of trustees or of education of any 
special school district may appoint the time for 



62 SCHOOL LAWS 

its annual meeting when so authorized by a 
majority vote of the district at any general elec- 
tion or at any special election called for such 
purpose (§378). 

D. State High School Administration 
Board. 

The ofifice of this board is administrative and 
supervisory in relation to certain schools known 
as state high schools and graded schools. 

I. The Board. 

(i) Organization of the Board. 

The board is constituted of the state superin- 
tendent of public instruction and the president 
of the University of Minnesota, ex-ofBcio, and 
a superintendent or principal of any high school 
in Minnesota to be appointed by the Governor 
and confirmed by the Senate (§219). 

(2) Powers and Duties of the Board. 

(a) To establish necessary and suitable rules 
for the acceptance of schools, and for the regula- 
tion of examinations, reports and courses of 
study, including an optional English or business 
course, required to be taken for admission to 
the state university (§221). 

(b) To appoint, in their discretion, a suitable 
person to inspect high schools, who shall be call- 
ed the high school inspector. The board shall 



OF MINNESOTA 62, 

fix his salary and provide for his travening ex- 
penses as provided by law in the case of state 
officials (§220). 

(c) To appoint a suitable person to inspect 
state graded schools, who shall be called graded 
school inspector. The board shall fix his salary 
and provide for his travelling expenses as provid- 
ed by law in the case of state officials. His duties 
shall be similar to those of the state high school 
inspector. 

(d) To keep a record of all proceedings, and, 
on or before the first of September, annually, 
make detailed report to the state superintendent 
of public instruction of all receipts and dis- 
bursements, and of the number and condition of 
the schools under their supervision (§222). 

(e) To consider with full discretionaiy power, 
and act upon applications of high schools for 
state aid. Subject to the provisions of the act un- 
der which the board is constituted, the boan' 
may prescribe conditions upon which such aid 
shall be granted (§228). 

2. State High Schools. 

(i) Conditions of Acceptance. 

A high school may become a state high school, 
to be received under the supervision of the high 
school board, and may receive state aid upon 
compliance with the following conditions : 



64 SCHOOL LAWS 

(a) It shall have maintained for the school 
year next preceding that for which aid is granted 
at least nine month's school. 

(b) It shall afford free tuition to students of the 
state who shall have completed satisfactorily the 
common branches (arithmetic, grammar, geog- 
raphy and U. S. history) through the eighth 
grade of the graded schools. 

(c) It shall have regular courses of study, em- 
bracing all branches prescribed by the high 
school board as prerequisite for admission to 
the collegiate department of the state univer- 
sity. 

(d) It shall be subject to the rules and regula- 
tions of the high school board, and be at all times 
open to the visitation of said board or of the high 
school inspector (§§224, 225). 

(e) Application may be made by the trustees 
of any state graded school to the high school 
board to be advanced to the class of state high 
schools, and upon an examination into the re- 
cords and standings of such school, the board is 
satisfied that it is able to maintain the curricu- 
lum of a state high school, it may raise such 
school to a state high school entitling it to aid 
as such (§233). 

(2) State Aid. 

(a) Each school accepted by the board and 



OF MINNESOTA 65 

complying with the requirements of the statute 
and the rules of the board shall receive one thous- 
and dollars, provided that in case the amount 
appropriated is not sufficient to allow the full 
payment, then the amount available shall be ap- 
portioned pro rata among the schools entitled 
thereto/ 

(b) State high schools prepared to give special 
instruction in the common school branches help- 
ful to teachers may receive a special appropria- 
tion of five hundred dollars upon certification 
of the high school board. 

3. State Graded Schools. 

(]) Conditions of Acceptance. 

Any public school of any town, village or town- 
ship graded school may become a state graded 
school, to be received under the supervision of 
the high school board and receive state aid upon 
com.plying with the following conditions : 

(a) It shall have maintained for the school 
year next preceding that for which the aid is 
granted at least nine months' school. 

(b) It shall be organized, having at least four 
departments, having a principal and teachers 
with qualifications as required under the rules of 

iLaw of 1903. State high schools may receive $1500 
each. Appropriation, $217,000. 



66 SCHOOL LAWS 

the high school board ; provided, the principal 
shall be a graduate from the advanced course 
of a state normal school, or the academic or ped- 
agogical department of a reputable college or 
state university, or have a first grade state cer- 
tificate, or a state professional certificate. 

(c) The school shall have suitable buildings, 
library and other apparatus necessary for doing 
efficient work. 

(d) It shall have a regular course of study, 
embracing such branches as are required under 
the rules of the high school board (§§229, 230). 

(e) The county superintendent of schools may 
recommend to the state high school board the 
advancement of a semi-graded school to the class 
of state graded schools whenever he is satisfied 
that it has the necessary qualifications ; and if 
upon examination into the records and standing 
of such school, the high school board is satis- 
fied that it fully complies with all necessary re- 
quirements, said board may raise it to a state 
graded school, entitling it to aid as such (§239). 

(2) State Aid. 

Each school accepted by the state board and 
complying with the requirements of the statute 
and the rules of the board shall receive four 
hundred (400) dollars in each year, provided 
that the amount appropriated is not sufficient 



OF MINNESOTA 67 

to allow this full payment, then the amount 
available shall be apportioned pro rata among 
the schools entitled thereto (§232).^ 

4. Supervision. 

(i) Of State High Schools. 

Under the authority of the high school board 
the inspector of high schools, or his assistant, 
shall visit each high school at least once in each 
year, who shall inspect the instruction and dis- 
cipline and make a written report on the same 
immediately ; and no money shall be paid until 
such report has been received, examined and 
approved by the board (§226). 

(2) Of State Graded Schools. 

Under the authority of the high school board, 
the graded school inspector or his assistant, shall 
visit each school at least once each year, who 
shall inspect the instruction and discipline of the 
school and make a written report immediately ; 
and no money shall be paid until such report 
has been received and approved by the board 
(§231). 

E. State Normal Schools. 

I. The Board of Directors. 

(i) Organization. 

(a) The state normal school board of direct- 

^Law of 1903. State graded schools may receive $550 
each. Appropriation, $79,000. 



68 SCHOOL LAWS 

ors consists of nine members, of which the state 
superintendent of public instruction is ex-offtcio 
a member and secretary, and eight appointed 
by the governor with the advice and consent of 
the senate, for a term of four years. One mem- 
ber — and but one — shall be appointed from 
each of the counties of Winona, Blue Earth and 
Stearns. By implication, upon the increase of 
the board from six to eight appointed members, 
and the addition of two normal schools — Moor- 
head and Duluth — one member will be ap- 
pointed from each of the counties of Clay and 
St. Louis (§308). 

(b) Each member shall qualify before entering 
upon his duties by filing with the secretary of 
state the usual oath of office (§311). 

(c) The board shall biennially elect by ballot 
one of their number as president (§310). 

(2) Duties and Authority. 

(a) This board shall have general supervision, 
management and control of the state normal 
schools, and all property pertaining thereto. They 
shall have power to contract for the erection of 
buildings connected with said schools, to appoint 
all professors and teachers and fix salaries for 
the same, provided that the salary of no prin- 
cipal shall exceed twenty-five hundred (2500) 
dollars (§312). 



OF MINNESOTA 69 

(b) They shall prescribe courses of study in 
the normal schools, conditions of admission and 
confer diplomas. They shall make all necessary 
rules, and visit the schools, either as a whole, or 
through a committee of their own number, in- 
spect grounds, buildings, instruction and man- 
agement, at least once during each term (§313)- 

(c) They shall, through their president, on 
or before December first in each year, report to 
the governor the condition of each school, its 
receipts and disbursements, wants and prospects, 
together with such recommendations for its im- 
provement as they may deem proper and nec- 
essary (§313). 

(3) Duties of the Treasurer. 

(a) Each treasurer shall give bond payable 
to the State of Minnesota in such sum as the 
board may direct, and with one or more sureties 
to be approved by the board. 

(b) The directors resident at the several 
schools shall act as treasurers to receive and 
disburse all moneys under the direction of the 
board, and report the same whenever so directed 
by the board (§317). 

(c) He shall receive a sum not to exceed three 
hundred (300) dollars for services and expenses 
incident to keeping the accounts of his school 



70 SCHOOL LAWS 

(§319). The salaries of treasurers shall be paid 
by their respective schools (§320). 

2. Normal Schools. 

There are five state normal schools, located 
at Winona, Mankato, St. Cloud, Moorhead and 
at Duluth. 

(i) Tuition. 

The schools are free to all students upon con- 
dition that they file with the principal a declara- 
tion of their intention to engage in teaching in 
the public schools of the state for a term not less 
than two years after their connection with the 
school shall cease. 

The board may fix such tuition for pupils in 
the model school, and for students of the normal 
school not intending to teach, as they may deem 
just (§316). 

(2) Diplomas. 

Every diploma shall be valid as a certificate 
of qualification of the first grade to teach in the 
public schools of the state for a period of two 
years from date of graduation (§276). 

At the expiration of two years of actual teach- 
ing service the diploma of such graduate may be 
indorsed by the president of the normal school 
from which it was issued, and by the state su- 
perintendent of public instruction, upon satis- 
factory evidence of successful and satisfactory 



OF MINNESOTA 71 

service. Such endorsement shall make the di- 
ploma of the elementary course a valid certifi- 
cate for five years, and the diploma of the ad- 
vanced course a permanent certificate of qual- 
ification (§277). 

Any county or city superintendent of schools 
under whose supervision such graduates may be 
employed shall have power to suspend such cer- 
tificates for causes duly shown, such suspension 
to be subject to the same appeal as is provided 
in the case of certificates issued by such county 
or city superintendents (§278). 

(3) President's Report. 

On or before September first the president of 
each school shall make a written report to the 
state superintendent of public instruction for the 
year of the school. This report shall set forth 
the general statistics of the school, its enrollment 
in each department and class, the average at- 
tendance, the number of graduates, teachers, 
together with an account of the general condi- 
tion of building, library and apparatus, and such 
other matter as will be of interest to the public 
and for the welfare of the school (§314). 

F. University of Minnesota. 

The university, established and located "at or 
near the falls of St. Anthony" (185 1) is con- 



72 SCHOOL LAWS 

firmed by the constitution (Art. VIII, §4), shall 
provide means of acquiring a thorough knowl- 
edge of the various branches of literature, sci- 
ence and the arts, and such branches as relate 
to agriculture, the mechanic arts and military 
tactics. There shall be established five or more 
colleges, including colleges or departments of 
law and medicine and shall be under the con- 
trol of a board of regents (§§328, 329). 
I. Board of Regents. 

(1) Organization. 

(a) The board of regents consists of twelve 
members, the governor of the state, the superin- 
tendent of public instruction and the president of 
the university, members ex-ofiicio, and nine 
members appointed by the governor by and with 
the advice and consent of the senate^ for terms 
of six years (§329). 

(b) The officers of the board are a president, 
treasurer and secretary, who shall hold their 
respective offices during the pleasure of the 
board. The president and treasurer shall each 
execute a bond in the sum of fifty thousand 
(50.000) dollars with at least two sureties, to the 
State of Minnesota to be approved by the gov- 
ernor and filed in the office of the secretary of 
state (§331). 

(2) Powers and Duties. 



OF MINNESOTA yz 

(a) The regents of the university shall consti- 
tute a body corporate, and may sue and be sued, 
contract and be contracted with, and make use 
of a common seal (§330). 

(b) They shall enact by-laws for the govern- 
ment of the university, elect a president, profes- 
sors, instructors, ofificers, employees, and fix their 
salaries and terms of office. 

(c) They shall have full power in determining 
the qualifications for admission and in prescrib- 
ing books and authorities to be used in depart- 
ments, and in conferring degrees and granting 
diplomas as is usual in universities (§332). 

(d) They may accept in trust or otherwise any 
gift, grant, bequest or devise of property real 
or personal, for educational purposes, to hold, 
manage, invest and dispose of the same and the 
proceeds therefrom in accordance with prescribed 
conditions (§333). 

(e) The annual meeting of the board shall be 
held on the second Tuesday of December, and 
special meetings shall be called and held at such 
times as the regents shall determine (§337). 

(f) The board shall cause to be begun and 
carry on a thorough geological and natural his- 
tory survey of the state, and through their pres- 
ident make annual report of the progress of the 
said surveys (§§345-352). 



74 SCHOOL LAWS 

(g) The board shall have control of the state 
salt lands donated by the general government, 
and shall have power to sell them in such man- 
ner as they may see fit, and disburse the proceeds 
in accordance with the law ordering a geological 
and natural history survey of the state (§353)- 

(h) The board shall make provision for the 
purchase of suitable lands in the vicinity of the 
university for an experimental farm, and as soon 
as practicable make the improvements necessary 
for experimental purposes, and in connection 
with the course in the agricultural college (§340). 

(i) The board shall make provision for the 
care and treatment in some hospital within ten 
miles of the state university of indigent, crippled 
and deformed children who have resided in the 
state not less than one year. Medical and sur- 
gical attendance shall be by members of the staff 
of the medical college of the vmiversity without 
extra compensation. Hospital care shall be pro- 
vided on such terms as may be agreed upon by 
the regents. 

Rules for the admission, care, treatment and 
discharge of children shall be adopted by the 
board as they may deem proper (§380). 

(j) On or before the second Tuesday in De- 
cember the board shall make report annually 



OF MINNESOTA 75 

through its president to the governor, showing 
in detail the progress and condition of the uni- 
versity, the wants of the various departments, 
and the amounts of money received and dis- 
bursed and such other matters as they may deem 
important and useful. 

(3) Duties of the Secretary. 

The secretary shall record all proceedings of 
the board, and shall carefully preserve all books 
and papers, and before entering upon the duties 
of his office he shall take and subscribe an oath 
to perform his duties faithfully (§332). 

(4) Duties of the Treasurer. 

The treasurer shall give the required bond 
(see, Organization of the board), and take and 
subscribe an oath that he will faithfully perform 
the duties of his office. He shall keep an ex- 
act and faithful account of all moneys, bills re- 
ceivable and evidences of indebtedness, and all 
securities and properties received or paid out by 
him. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Certificates and Examinations. 

I. Classes and Validity of Certificates. 
(i) State certificates. 

(a) State Professional, valid for the time stated 
on the face, and in all schools of the state. 

(b) University Teachers' Certificate, has the 
rank of the State Professional. It is valid as a 
probationary certificate for two years from its 
date, and upon endorsement by the state superin- 
tendent of public instruction and the president 
of the university, it is made perpetual (§275). 

(c) State first grade, valid for five years, and 
in all schools of the state, excepting-, that by rule 
of the high school board it is not accepted in 
state high schools, and that boards of education 
of special and independent districts may by for- 
mal action decide not to recognize for the grades 
either this or the second grade (§§263, 265-270). 

(d) Second grade, valid for two years in the 
county in which the examination is held, and in 
any other county upon the endorsement of the 
superintendent of such county (§§263-265). 

(2) Diplomas as Certificates, 
(a) The diploma of a college or university of 
good standing, after one vear's successful teach- 



OF MINNESOTA 77 

ing- under a state first grade certificate entitles 
the holder to a state professional certificate 
(§273). 

(b) The diploma of a state normal school is 
valid as a certificate of the first grade for two 
years from graduation (§276). 

Upon endorsement, at the expiration of two 
years, by the state superintendent of public in- 
struction and the president of the school issuing 
the diploma (i) the diploma of the elementary 
course shall be valid for five years, and (2) the 
diploma of the advanced course shall be a cer- 
tificate of permanent qualification (§277). 

2. Examinaiions. 

(i) For State Professional certificates upon 
examination, a committee of three is appointed 
by the state superintendent of public instruction. 
By rule of the department, examinations are held 
at the state university in August immediately 
following the regular state examinations, and 
also at the capitol during the Christmas holidays 
A second grade may be issued to deserving teach- 
ers lacking not more than three of the required 
subjects (§273). 

(2) Under the direction of the superintendent 
of public instruction two examinations shall be 
held annually in every county of the state under 
the following regulations. The county superin- 

L.ofC. 



78 SCHOOL LAWS 

tendents shall designate the places of examin- 
ation. Public notice shall be given of time and 
place of examinations. The time shall be uni- 
form (§267). 

The county superintendents shall conduct the 
examinations of their respective counties, or 
shall appoint persons to conduct them in their 
stead (§267). 

When required, the examiner shall make af- 
fidavit that the examination has been conducted 
strictly according to the regulations prescribed 
(%267). 

The following subjects are required for all cer- 
tificates : spelling, reading, arithmetic, penman- 
ship, grammar, composition, geography, history 
of the United .States, physiology and the practical 
facts of hygiene. For first grade certificates, the 
following in addition : elementary algebra, plane 
geometry, physical geography, natural philos- 
ophy and civil government, provided that in 
lieu of natural philosophy, physical geography 
and plane geometry, the state superintendent 
may designate equivalent optional subjects, and 
may offer music and drawing as optionals (§§267- 
268). 

The certificates of the state normal schools 
and of state high schools in all subjects including 
the so-called common branches having a stand- 



OF MINNESOTA 79 

ing of not less than seventy-five (75) per cent, 
mav be accepted in lien of examinations in such 
subjects (§268)/ 

(3) Local certificates. (See page 46.) 

(4) Miscellaneous. 

(a) Teachers desiring to take the examination 
may dismiss their schools for that purpose for 
a period not to exceed two days in each year 
without loss of pay (§267). 

(b) The state superintendent may in his dis- 
cretion issue a certificate of qualification without 
examination to a person who has taught in the 

§273. For Professional Certificates. Final markings 
from Minnesota State normal schools, will, upon recom- 
mendation of the several presidents, be accepted in 
place of an examination in History of Education, School 
Economy, School Law and Psychology. 

§268. P'or State Teachers' Certificates, First and Sec- 
ond Grade. State High School Board certificates which 
show a standing of not less than 75 per cent, will be ac- 
cepted in lieu of examinations in Senior Arithmetic, 
Senior Geography, Senior Grammar, Senior His- 
tory OF THE United States, Algebra, Civil 
Government, Plane Geometry, Physical Geo- 
graphy, and Natural Philosophy, CPhysics), pro- 
vided, that no such certificates shall be accepted if pre- 
sented more than a year later than the date of the last 
certificate received by the candidate, unless he has 
taught with success since the date of the last certificate, 
as certified by the county superintendent. 

Standings of 80 per cent, or more in branches com- 
pleted at a Minnesota state normal school within the 
past two years will be accepted in lieu of examination in 
such branches by the department upon the recommen- 
dation of the president where the standings are granted. 



8o SCHOOL LAWS 

public schools of ihe state five or more years, 
upon a written application endorsed by the 
officers of the school and of the city or county 
superintendent under whom he has taught the 
greater part of five years next preceding the date 
of appHcation (§271). 

(c) The expenses for the examination shall be 
paid as follow^s: (i) local expenses by the county 
in which the examination is held, (2) expenses 
of the state superintendent in the examination 
of papers and issuing certificates, by the state 
from the appropriation made for conducting in- 
stitutes to an amount not exceeding twenty-five 
hundred dollars (§272). 

(d) Any county or city superintendent under 
whose supervision a graduate of a normal school 
or other teacher is employed may, for causes 
duly shown, suspend the certificate of such 
teacher, such suspension to be subject to appeal 
(§§264-278). 

(e) Appeals. 

Any teacher aggrieved and desiring to ap- 
peal from the decision of a superintendent re- 
voking or suspending his certificate shall, within 
ten days after receiving such notice, serve a 
written notice of appeal from such decision on 
the state superintendent of public instruction, 
specifying the grounds upon which the appeal 



OF MINNESOTA 8i 

is taken. This appeal shall be reviewed by the 
state superintendent under equitable regulations 
prescribed by him (§§264, 266, 279). 

Any applicant failing to pass the scholastic 
examination for a certificate may, upon appeal to 
the state superintendent, have his papers re- 
viewed by the instructors in the corresponding 
branches in the state university, provided such 
appeal is taken within ten days from the date of 
receipt of notice of such failure (§269). 



CHAPTER Y. 

Support of Public Schools. 

I. General Support of Coiuiuon Schools. 

The term "common schools" applies to all 
schools of the system excepting normal schools 
and the university. It also applies to all grades 
of these schools, including the high schools. 
This support is provided in several forms as 
follows : 

(i) By the General Government. 

The general government has set apart sections 
sixteen and thirty-six of each township and has 
granted the same to the state for school purposes. 
(Act of Congress Authorizing a State Govern- 
ment, passed Feb. 26, 1857.) The state in its 
constitution provides that the lands intrusted to 
it for educational purposes shall be sold and 
the proceeds remain inviolate ; and the income 
from the lease and sale of such lands shall be dis- 
tributed in proportion to the number of scholars 
between the ages of five and twenty-one years. 
The proceeds of sales shall be safely invested 
under suitable laws enacted by the legislature, 
in interest-bearing bonds of the United States, 
M'innesota, and of other states. They may also 
be invested in the bonds of any county, city, vil- 



OF MINNESOTA 83 

lage, town or school district, under the direction 
and approval of the designated board of commis- 
sioners. Loans and investments shall not be 
made when the issue of the same would in part 
make the entire bonded indebtedness exceed 
seven per cent of the assessed valuation of the 
taxable real property of the count}% school dis- 
trict, city, town or village issuing such bonds, 
nor the interest be less than three per cent per 
annum, nor for a time less than five years nor 
longer than twentv vears. (Constitution, Article 
VIII, §§2, 6.)i 

(2) Support by the State. 

There shall be levied annually upon the tax- 
able property of the state a tax of one and 
twenty-three hundredths of a mill to be known 
as the "state school tax." of which the proceeds 
of one mill shall be added to the general school 
fund, which together shall be known as the "cur- 
rent school fund" (§172). 

(3) Apportionment of the Current School 
Fund. 

The "Current School Fund" apportioned by 
the state consists of (i) the income from the per- 

^Law of 1903. Loans of permanent school and per- 
manent university funds shall bear interest at the rate 
of four per cent. County drainage bonds at three per 
cent may be purchased of the counties issuing them. 



84 SCHOOL LAWS 

manent fund, and known as the "general school 
fund," and (2) the state one-mill tax (§172). 

On the first Monday in March and the first 
Monday in October of each year, the superin- 
tendent of public instruction shall make an ap- 
portionment of the available current school funds 
in the treasury, among the counties in proportion 
to the number of scholars between the ages of 
five and twenty-one years who have been en- 
rolled and have been in attendance forty days 
in the public schools that have had at least five 
months of term within the year by a qualified 
teacher, and have reported as required bv law 
(§164). 

On the last Wednesday of March and on the 
last Wednesday of October in each year, the 
county auditor of each county shall make appor- 
tionments of the money in the county treasury 
accruing from the current school fund, and from 
the liquor licenses, estrays and fines among the 
several school districts in the county in which 
schools have been held as required by law, and 
the required reports have been made to the 
county superintendent. Statements of the 
amounts apportioned shall be transmitted to the 
clerks of the several districts. 

A district is entitled to a share of the liquor 



OF MINNESOTA 85 

license in case the licenses of such district are 
paid into the county treasury. 

A new district voting and providing for a four 
months school and having continued it one 
month, shall be entitled to the first and succeed- 
ing apportionment upon the basis of actual en- 
rollment ; and for two years succeeding, the dis- 
trict shall be entitled to apportionment in propor- 
tion to the number of scholars who have attended 
thirty days of four months' school. 

No district shall receive from the apportion- 
ment a greater amount than that appropriated 
by such district from the special and local one- 
mill tax levied in that year, unless the district 
is levving the maximum rate allowed by law 
(§167). ^ 

(4) Support by the district. 

(a) Local One-mill Tax. 

The county commissioners shall levy an an- 
nual tax of one mill to be known as the local 
mill tax, to be collected as other taxes are 
collected, and distributed to the districts of the 
county in amounts equal to the collections made 
from the several districts ; and in case the com- 
missioners fail to make such levy the county aud- 
itor shall extend the same upon the assessment 
roll of the year (§172). 

(b) Special Taxes. 



86 SCHOOL LAWS 

The annual meeting of school districts may 
vote an amount of money to be raised by a tax 
levy, sufficient to meet the conditions on which 
apportionments of state school funds are made, 
and to raise such additional amounts as the dis- 
trict may determine. 

2. Special State Support. 

(i) For State High Schools. (See page 65.) 

(2) For State Graded Schools. (See pages 66, 

(3) For State Semi-graded Schools. Seepages 

47, 48.) 

(4) For State Rural Schools. (See page 48.) 

(5) For Teachers' Institutes the state makes 
annual appropriation of seven thousand dollars. 

(6) For Teachers' Training Schools the state 
provides an annual appropriation of twenty thous- 
and (20,000) dollars (§146). 

(7) For the purchase of libraries, the state pro- 
vides that any school district, having provided 
a suitable book case for the care of books, and a 
librarian with suitable rules for the distribution 
of books, and having purchased books from the 
list approved and selected by the library commis- 
sion, and having forwarded a certified statement 
of the same with the endorsement of and through 
the county superintendent to the state superin- 
tendent, the said state superintendent shall make 



OF AIINNESOTA 87 

requisition upon the state auditor for one-half the 
amount so expended, who shall issue his warrant 
in favor of said district, provided, ( i ) that no dis- 
trict shall receive more than twenty dollars upon 
the first statement, nor more than ten dollars upon 
any subsequent statement, and (2) that each 
school building of the district for the purposes of 
this act shall be estimated as one district, and (3) 
no more than one statement shall be made by any 
one district in any one school year. 

P'or this purpose ten thousand (10,000) dollars 
are annually appropriated (§§290, 291, 392).^ 

^Law of IQ03. Fifteen thousand dollars are annually 
appropriated for libraries. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Support of State Normal Schools. 

The state normal schools are supported wholly 
by state appropriations. 

1. For current expenses the annual appropri- 
ation for the several schools is as follows for 
1903 : 

Winona $42,500 

Mankato 42,500 

St. Cloud 47*500 

Moorhead 48,000 

Duluth 27.000 

2. The appropriations for buildings and re- 
pairs are made from year to year upon the recom- 
mendation of the state normal board of directors. 



CHAPTER VII. 
The Support of the State University. 

I. By the General Government. 

( 1 ) By act of congress authorizing a state gov- 
ernment two townships — seventy-two sections — 
were set apart for a state university to be se- 
lected by the governor, subject to the approval 
of the commissioner of the general land office, 
and applied by the legislature for the purpose 
aforesaid. (Act of Congress passed Feb. 26, 

1857, §5-) 

In 1870, by act of Congress, an additional two 
townships were set apart for the same purpose 
and upon the same conditions. These lands be- 
ing sold, the proceeds formed the "permanent 
university fund," and was required to be in- 
vested, as was the permanent school fund (see, 
Chap. V. I.). The income from the same con- 
stitutes the "general university fund" and shall 
be used for the support of the state university. 

(2) In 1862, by act of Congress, thirty thous- 
and acres for each of the four representatives of 
the state in Congress (120,000 acres), were set 
apart for the benefit of a college of agriculture 
and mechanic arts, including military tactics. In 



90 SCHOOL LAWS 

1868. by act of Legislature, the college of agri- 
culture and mechanic arts, together with all 
lands and funds provided for its support, was 
united with the state university, upon w^hich 
the two funds were merged under the one name 
"permanent university fund," the proceeds of 
which are required to- be used for the purposes 
prescribed by acts of Congress and the legisla- 
ture of the state. 

(3) By act of Congress (Hatch Bill, March 
2, 1887), fifteen thousand (15,000) dollars are 
annually appropriated for the support of an agri- 
cultural experiment station. The management of 
this fund, subject to conditions defined in the 
bill, was committed by the legislature to the 
regents of the university. The purposes and re- 
sults of this department are educational in a 
large and popular interest, and, therefore, is most 
appropriately administered by the regents of the 
university. 

(4) By act of congress (Morrill Bill, Aug. 30, 
1890) there was appropriated from the sale of 
public lands for the more complete endowment 
and maintenance of colleges for the benefit of 
agriculture and the mechanic arts, fifteen thous- 
and (15,000) dollars for the year ending June 
thirteenth, 1890, to be increased annually by 
one thousand (1000) dollars until the annual 



OF MINNESOTA 91 

amount shall amount to, and remain perman- 
ent at, twenty-five thousand (25,000) dol- 
lars. This appropriation shall be applied to 
instruction in agriculture and mechanic arts, the 
English language, and the various branches of 
mathematical, physical, natural and economic 
science, with special reference to their application 
in the industries of life. 

(5) By act of congress (Feb. 26, 1867) certain 
reserved lands known as "Saline," to the amount 
of 46,080 acres were donated to the state of 
Minnesota. And by act of the state legisla- 
ture (Mar. 10, 1873) these lands were trans- 
ferred to the custody and control of the regents 
of the university, upon condition that these lands 
be sold by the board of regents, and the proceeds 
disbursed in accordance with the law ordering a 
geological and natural history sun'ey. 

2. By the State. 

(i) An annual tax of twenty-three hundredths 
of a mill is levied upon the taxable property of 
the state and added to the general university 
fund (§172.) 

(2) Special annual appropriations are as fol- 
lows : 

For the department of mining engin- 
eering $5,000 

For the maintenance of the library. . 7,500 



92 SCHOOL LAWS 

For general repairs $ 8.000 

For printing 2,000 

3. University Annual Tuitions. 
Registration, fifteen dollars. 
LaAv Department, sixty dollars. 
Medical Colleges, one hundred dollars. 
Dentistry, one hundred dollars. 
Pharmacy (for entire course) one hundred 

sixty-five dollars. 

4. Special State .Ippropriations. 

Appropriations for buildings and other inter- 
ests are made by the legislature as necessary, 
and upon the recommendation of the regents of 
the university. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
State Supervision. 

The general supervision of education in the 
state is assigned to the state superintendent of 
public instruction, who is related to every de- 
partment of education and every state educa- 
tional institution as an ex-officio member of each 
board. In many respects his relation is authori- 
tative and directory ; in others, and in which he 
exerts his greatest influence, he represents the pro- 
gressive ideals of education, and, in an advisory 
capacity, co-operates with the educators of the 
state in the improvement of their schools and in 
sustaining them in their efforts to realize the best 
methods of school administration and instruction. 

I. Appointment. 

The superintendent of public instruction is 
appointed by the governor by and with the ad- 
vice of the senate for two years, and at an annual 
salary of twenty-five hundred dollars.^ By con- 
stitutional amendment he assumes the duties of 
his office on the first Monday of January, having 
taken the required oath of office. His office is 

^Law of 1903. The salary of the superintendent of 
public instruction shall be three thousand dollars. 



94 SCHOOL LAWS 

at the capitol, where all papers, records, reports 
and other documents pertaining to his office are 
kept (§§133, 134). 

2. Assistant. He shall appoint an assistant su- 
perintendent whose salary is fixed at eighteen 
hundred dollars per annum. 

3. He is ex-officio, a member of the board of 
regents of the state university (§329) ; of th-j state 
normal board of directors, of which he is ex- 
officio secretary (§§308, 310) ; of the board of 
directors of the institute for defectives (§140) ; 
and of the state high school board (§219). 

4. Duties. 

(i) To meet the county superintendents at 
such time and place as is conducive to the in- 
terests of education, for the consideration of such 
matters of administration and instruction as are 
of value and interest to the counties represented 
(§136). 

(2) To prepare and distribute blanks, registers 
and records required by the county superintend- 
ents, district clerks and treasurers for the trans- 
action of the business of school districts, (§138). 

(3) To organize institutes and training schools 
(§§141, 143). 

(4) To hold teachers' examinations and issue 
certificates (§263). (See Chap. IV.) 

(5) To consider appeals. (See page 80.) 



I 



OF MINNESOTA 95 

(6) To issue state professional certificates 
(See pages 76, jy.) 

(7) To make apportionment of the current 
school fund and report the same to the state 
auditor (§171). (See page 84.) 

(8) To make requisition for aid to state rural 
and state semi-graded schools (See pages 47, 48.) 

(9) To make requisition for library aid. (See 
page 86. 

(10) To keep record of all schools applying for 
state aid as rural and as semi-graded schools 
(§§238, 244). 

(11) To recommend, with the presidents of the 
normal schools, suitable text books for the study 
of physiology, hygiene, stimulants and narcotics 
(§368). 

(12) To make biennial report of receipts and 
disbursements of the money appropriated for the 
aid of Sitate semi-graded and rural schools, the 
names and number of schools of each class, num- 
ber of pupils in classes, and the cost of supervi- 
sion for the years covered by the report, and also 
his estimate of the amount required for the two 
succeeding years (§245). 

(13) To take charge of the sale of dictionaries, 
and turn over to the state treasurer all money 
received for said sales (§295). 

(14) To make biennial report through the gov- 



96 SCHOOL LAWS 

ernor to the legislature on or before the fifth 
of December a comprehensive and detailed report 
of the public schools and all other institutions 
that may report to him ; including all receipts 
and disbursements of public educational funds, 
and all matters relating to teachers and schools 
that are of public interest and importance (§137). 



CHAPTER IX. 
Miscellaneous Laws. 

1. Incorporated colleges and seminaries are 
required to report annually before January first 
to the state superintendent the names of officers 
and students of their several institutions, to- 
g-ether with their financial condition in property, 
s^nd such other information as will tend to exhibit 
their condition and operations (§139). 

2. Compulsory Attendance. 

Every parent or guardian or other person re- 
siding in a school district of the state having con- 
trol of a child between the ages of 8 and 16 years 
shall send him to a public parochial or private 
school during the entire time the public school 
of such district is in session. This requirement 
may be suspended in part or for the whole of 
such period by the board when it is shown to 
the satisfaction of the board ( i ) that the parents 
or guardian is not able to properly clothe such 
child, (2)that the child is not physically or men- 
tally capable of attending school, (3) that he is 
taught at home in all the required common 
school branches ; (4) that he has already acquired 
a common school education, and (5) that he is 



98 SCHOOL LAWS 

actually employed in some useful occupation per- 
mitted by law (§280). 

3. Truant Officer and Schools. 

The board of any school district shall have 
power to appoint and remove one or more tru- 
ant officers, whose duty it shall be to investigate 
cases of truancy and non-attendance at school, 
to make complaints, serve notices and to enforce 
all laws and school regulations respecting truant, 
incorrigible and disorderly children, and the at- 
tendance of children at school (§281). 

Truant Scholars. 

Such board of any school district may establish 
one or more ungraded schools for the instruc- 
tion of children between eight and sixteen years 
of the following classes: (i) habitual truants. (2) 
incorrigible, immoral and vicious children, and 
(3) habitual wanderers on the street without law- 
ful employment. Children of these classes may 
be assigned to and be required to attend such 
ungraded truant school as the board may deter- 
mine (§282). 

Complaints. 

Whenever such board of any school district 
shall determine it to be necessary, the truant 
officer, upon the order of the board, shall make 
complaint against such juvenile offender before 
a justice of the peace or other authorized mag- 



OF MINNESOTA 99 

istrate, who shall issue a warrant and proceed to 
a hearing- upon the complaint. If it be found 
that the complaint is sustained, such justice of 
the peace or magistrate shall sentence such juve- 
nile offender to the Minnesota State Training 
School, provided that for the first ofifense the 
magistrate may suspend the sentence in his dis- 
cretion. 

Penalty for Failure to Comply (§283)- 

Any parent or guardian having been duly 
notified by the truant of^cer but fails to comply 
with the provisions of this act in sending a child 
under his control to school, shall be guilty of 
misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be pun- 
ished by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or 
bv imprisonment not exceeding thirty days 
(§284). 

4. Cigarettes^ Cigars, or Tobacco. 

Any person furnishing by sale or otherwise 
cigarettes, cigars or tobacco to any person under 
eighteen years of age, or to any minor pupil in 
an}' school, college or university shall be pun- 
ished by a fine of not to exceed fifty dollars or 
imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed 
thirty days. 

Any person under eighteen years of age or 
minor pupil who shall smoke or use cigarettes 
or tobacco in any form in any public place or 



100 SCHOOL LAWS 

street shall be subject to a fine of not to exceed 
ten dollars or imprisonment in the county jail 
not to exceed five days for each ofTense. 

Any person who shall provide a place in which 
persons under eighteen and minors may frequent, 
for the purpose of indulging in the use of cigar- 
ettes, cigars or tobacco in any form shall be lia- 
ble to the same penalty as those who sell to such 
minors (§377). 

5. Intoxicating Liquors. 

No license shall be issued by county com- 
missioners to sell intoxicating liquors at a place 
outside the corporate limits of any incorporated 
city, village or l)orough and within a distance 
of fifteen hundred feet of any school house of any 
public or independent school district (§276). 

6. Child Labor. 

No child under sixteen shall, in the year next 
succeeding his birthday be employed during the 
hours in which the public schools of the district 
are in session until he has attended some school 
for the period required by law. 

No child who cannot read simple sentences in 
English shall be employed at any indoor occu- 
pation except in vacations unless he is a regular 
attendant at a day or evening school. But when- 
ever it shall appear to the school board' upon ex~ 
amination that the labor of such minor is nee- 



OF MINNESOTA lor 

essary for the support of his family, the board 
may issue a permit authorizing the employment 
of such minor within such times as they may 

fix (§375)- 

7. Holidays (See page 16). 

8. Transpovtation of Pupils (vSec page 28). 

9. Women as electors. 

(i) Qualifications (See pages 34. 35). 

(2) A separate ballot box shall be provided for 
the ballots of women for each election district 
in which they are entitled to vote (§31). 

(3) Any woman who is a qualified elector is 
entitled to vote for a county superintendent of 
schools in the election district of which she has 
been a resident at least ten days, in which case 
she shall register as now provided for male vot- 
ers (%%Z2, 33). 

(4) By provision of the Constitution (§8, Art. 
7, as amended), women may vote at any election 
for the purpose of choosing any ofificers of 
schools or members of library boards, or upon 
any measure relating to schools or libraries. 
They shall also be eligible to hold any office per- 
taining to the management of schools and libra- 
ries (§36). 

10. Dictionaries. 

Any district or district department not al- 
ready provided for, upon application by its su- 



J02 SCHOOL LAWS 

ptrintendent, clerk or secretary of the board, to 
the state superintendent, shall be furnished with 
a copy of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary for 
each school or department at a cost not to exceed 
seven dollars a copy. The sum of twenty-five 
hundred dollars is appropriated for this pur- 
pose (§293). 

11. School Libraries (See page 86). 

12. Free Text Books (See page 37). 



JUL 20 1903 



